


Changes in Time

by KostekSocs



Category: RWBY
Genre: Adventure, Adventure & Romance, Eventual Romance, Friendship, Gen, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:46:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 23,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23852533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KostekSocs/pseuds/KostekSocs
Summary: What happens when some really bad luck hits Salem affecting her followers letting Beacon survive into RWBY's and JNPR's second year and beyond? With Beacon not falling teams RWBY and JNPR will learn new skills and grow into new people. Though will they be able to handle everything thrown their way? With all the changes caused by the bad luck, they will be entering a new world.
Kudos: 3





	1. Bad Luck for the Villainess

**Welcome everyone to my first fan fiction story in several years, my friend recommended that I watch RWBY once the 7** **th** **season was done so I'm new to this fandom. After watching all the seasons, I found myself liking the show, mostly the characters. The setting is interesting as well, though the plot of the show is at times a bit meh. My friend has been a fan of the show for years and this story is the result of a late-night conversation between us.**

**Fair warning, the structure of the story is a bit of an experiment. So, we will understand if people get annoyed at how the story reads.**

**The story starts after the breach, but before the tournament and will jump around in time for a bit.**

**So welcome to Changes in Time, the vaguest name possible. Dreamed up by a bored IT guy and an overworked marketing girl and written on a tablet being passed between us. Having to stay at home gives us some hours back that we are not spending commuting to work, so we are writing this.**

**Of course, we do not own RWBY and we won't make even a nickel from this story, it's all for fun, playing in RoosterTeeth's sandbox.**

**-KostekSocs**

* * *

**Chapter One – Bad Luck for the Villainess**

* * *

Salem was staring out the window of her stronghold looking at the newly forming Grimm deep in thought about luck and how bad hers had to be for everything to go so wrong in just over a week. _'Years of planning and outmaneuvering Ozma and all for nothing!'_ Salem raged, her aura flaring.

She sighed again thinking of any way that her plans for this decade could be fixed or modified without having to completely rework them, but she did not see any way. She will have to come up with something new and start over. The win would have to go to Ozma for now, but she would soon enough be standing over a broken Vale and a defeated Beacon. What are a few more years for someone who has endured millennia?

' _I will win in the end against both Ozma and the brothers, that is the only way this all can end.'_ She resolved as a seer floated up to her showing Cinder on the other side. Salem considered Cinder, her last follower. _'Such darkness hiding just below such beauty. So much greed and ambition in such a pretty package. How lucky Cinder was that her inner self did not show to the world at first glance. Only time or her actions showed the world who Cinder truly is.'_ Not like herself, cursed by the brothers, her power and darkness showing on the surface for all to see.

"You wanted to speak to me?" Cinder asked.

"Yes, my dark maiden, unfortunately you will have to stop the plans to get the rest of the maiden's power and come back to the tower" Salem replied.

"Why, the breach went perfectly even with the White Fang and Roman not being able to handle those pesky students. No one suspects us." Cinder exclaim, a look of desperation on her face and anger in her eyes. "The virus is on Atlas' systems as well, once the tournament starts my plan..." Cinder paused for a second "… your plan" she corrected bowing her head "will succeed!" Cinder continued getting more worked up, fire beginning to flare up around her eyes, the sign of her maiden powers activating. "Roman will play his part, he is already on the flagship and the White Fang are getting ready as well with the Grimm…"

"Calm yourself" Salem calmly stated, not raising her voice, but cutting Cinder off and causing her follower to go silent, instantly bowing her head. Salem continued with a degree of menace in her voice "I would not be calling you or ordering you to return if it were not important."

"Of course Salem, please forgive me, it's just that your plan is so close to succeeding that I got too invested in it. I wanted it to be successful to prove to you that I can fulfill your orders and to see Ozpin suffer" Cinder replied quickly trying to placate her.

' _Cinder has been on her own for too long, the power is going to her head. This will have to be corrected.'_ Salem thought to herself, though in the current situation that may be a difficult task as she will have to give Cinder even more power. _'Cinder will be the most senior member of my circle once we recruit more followers, her ambition may prove to be more of a problem.'_ Though that would be a problem for the future and addressed when or if it comes up.

' _Remember, never focus on too many things at once, never focus too far in the future.'_ Salem centered herself and gathered her thoughts. ' _The now and what we do over the next week is the most important.'_

She will have to explain the situation to Cinder, then deal with her questions and any possible power plays. Cinders' two followers and her helpers will have to be dealt with as well. _'The assassin's son has no loyalty and the girl is too loyal to Cinder.'_ Such troublesome children. _'Fear of her may keep them from making any stupid moves and seeing Cinder answer to herself would show that she had power over them as well.'_ That will have to be enough for now, until she could think of a better way to control the children. They had to have something else they wanted besides the power or attention given to them by Cinder. Though if they could not prove to be useful then she would just get rid of them.

' _The thief, his little bodyguard and the White Fang will have to be handled as well.'_ Salem continued to go through the steps to stop her plan and to keep Ozma ignorant of her actions in Vale. _'Roman was only working for Cinder out of fear so he will be no issue, happy to return to his simple thieving ways and to be rid of Cinder. The bodyguard is loyal only to Roman and would most likely cause no issues if Roman was happy.'_ In any case the two of them could be dealt with easily enough.

' _And for the last issue in Vale, the White Fang, they will be too busy dealing with the loss of Adam to cause any trouble as well. As least in the short term they will be quiet, rebuilding.'_ Overall the situation with pulling Cinder out of Vale looked favorable, no real loose ends to handle. It would appear to Ozma, his circle and all of Vale that the breach was the plan and when that failed Roman was sacrificed and everyone else retreated.

Taking her thoughts back to the conversation at hand.

"Over this last week through a series of unfortunate accidents and incompetent mistakes Tyrian, Watts, Lionheart and Hazel all died. Reports say Adam was killed as well." Salem stated.

"Wh…...What? How could that have happened? All of them? Did Ozpin or one of his people do this?" Cinder replied shocked, her eyes opening wide. "I mean no disrespect, but are you sure that it was accidents and not moves being made?"

"Yes, I am sure" Salem replied calmly, but with a greater degree of anger in her voice than Cinder had heard in a long time. "Ozpin would not allow so many additional deaths to happen just to kill my followers."

"Additional deaths? What happened?" Cinder asked confused. "What about Ironwood or Qrow? Could it be them?" Cinder continued.

"If you would not interrupt me then I could say what took their lives and our next steps." Salem stated, losing her calm even further, her aura growing black and the veins on her face darkening.

"Of course Salem, I apologize for my questions, I was just shocked by the fact that they are all dead." Cinder quickly replied, bowing even lower and going completely still as not to make Salem even angrier.

' _She is really testing my patience, once she is back, I will have to find a suitable punishment.'_ Salem thought organizing her thoughts again and trying to release some of her built up anger. She lamented again what the last week cost her. _'Years of plans gone and through no action of Ozma, plain bad luck, though if the brothers were still on Remnant so many unfortunate things happening all at once against myself would have been their work._ _Was it possible that the brothers were still around or if this was part of their curse?'_ Salem pondered that thought for a bit before returning her attention to Cinder who was keeping silent.

"Tyrian was killed when he went to an Atlas base to kill one of their prisoners." Salem started explaining to Cinder "The reason that he was sent is no concern of yours Cinder only that during his mission a large military deployment arrived, several Gunships carrying regular solders and specialists. They were sent for a training mission based on the report Watts pulled." Salem paused for a second to shake her head at what would be the first bad luck in a week of a lot of it. "Then since Tyrian was already inside and detected he started a fight to escape instead of just escaping. During the fight, a gunship crashed into a building that stored dust ammunition. That caused a large explosion which killed him." She finished the explanation looking at a shocked Cinder.

"If I may Salem?" Cinder asked quietly still shocked, but with a look of curiosity in her eyes.

"Yes, ask your question." Salem replied.

"Wouldn't Ironwood approve of the loss of a gunship and some dust to kill Tyrian?" Cinder asked and then continued with more conviction her voice. "How do we know that he didn't find out about Tyrian's mission and send more people?"

"Because the explosion caused the death of 24 solders and 5 specialists, all part of their elite units. Ironwood and Atlas would not sacrifice so many living people when they could have sent their machines." Salem replied with a hint of frustration in her voice and saw Cinder nodding. "Watts and Lionheart found no messages or evidence that anyone knew Tyrian would be at that base. This was not planned." Salem stated and continued explaining. "This was a loss for Ironwood, Atlas and Ozpin as well, so many highly trained people and all that dust lost, just for Tyrian." Salem finished her explanation. "Do you have any further questions Cinder?" Salem asked with some mocking in her voice almost daring Cinder to question her more.

"No please continue Salem, what happened to Watts, Hazel and Lionheart?" Cinder replied, "I will not ask any further questions until you let me." Cinder finished off bowing once again.

' _It appears that Cinder finally remembered her place. Took her long enough.'_ Salem thought with more of her impatience and anger leaving at the sight of Cinder's submission.

"Hazel died when the ship he was on sunk. From the early investigation Watts pulled the ship hit something under the water. 371 people died along with Hazel before you ask if the sinking was deliberate Cinder." Salem explained in a voice returning to her regular calm, catching Cinder before she could ask her question. "The sinking happened only a day after Tyrian's mess." Salem finished looking at Cinder's surprised expression. _'The next bad luck and the start of the pattern that showed itself for the rest of the week.'_ Salem raged again not really accepting that everything over the last week was just bad luck.

"That is unfortunate" Cinder replied, "Tyrian may have killed himself with his actions, but for Hazel to just drown?" Cinder rubbed her eyes with her fingers, a look of disbelief on her face. Cinder continued "I read about that sinking, no one special onboard, just regular people and some huntsmen and huntresses."

"Yes, just an accident. Hazel in the end was just as mortal as the rest." Salem concluded with a look of contemplation on her face, Cinder in deep thought as well. "Though this was a loss for Ozpin as well as with the negativity that the sinking caused and the loss of the extra huntsmen, the Grimm are more active on the coast of Mistral." Salem finished explaining.

' _With Hazel gone I also lost an example of Ozma's failure. I will need to find a new example that I could throw at Ozma to remind him of his failures.'_ Salem pondered, there were definitely many people that Ozma failed, but would any of them have the rage that Hazel had or his lack of thought. _'Hazel had a personal reason, the death of his sister and he never considered that her becoming a huntress would invite the death that is so common to all of them.'_ Someone with a personal hatred and no brain would not be helpful though.

Steps for later, turning her attention back to Cinder who was waiting quietly for her to continue.

"Next was Lionheart, who was killed a day and a half later in what according to the police reports that Watts pulled was a fight between two criminal families in Mistral's lower city. What he was doing down there or why he came to be involved with that conflict I cannot say." Salem said shaking her head at the stupidity that Lionheart showed in the end. She continued "Lionheart along with 46 others were found dead and half a block of the lower city on that level was destroyed in the fight. Unfortunately, Watts had to go and get himself killed before he could provide further information on what happened." Salem stated with her eyes flashing red, cursing the bad luck that plagued her over the last week once again.

"Do we know anything about what Lionheart was doing?" Cinder asked taking advantage of the pause that Salem created. Confusion showing plainly on her face she continued. "Lionheart was a coward; he wouldn't go to the lower city without some good reason."

' _There she goes again forgetting her place.'_ Salem thought, she answered Cinder in a direct voice. "Even if I knew, I would not have to tell you as it would not be your concern Cinder."

"Yes Salem, of course, I was merely curious as to why Lionheart would do something so out of character." Cinder replied with a deferential tone in her voice, confusion and curiosity plain on her face.

"As I said it is not clear to me why he was down there and any clarity that Lionheart's notes could have given is gone now as they were taken by the Mistral authorities." Salem concluded.

' _And since Watts had to go and kill himself there is now no way to find out what was on those notes without sending Cinder or one of her followers to get the information.'_ Salem thought, contemplating her next move regarding what Lionheart's death could set in motion. _'At this moment I cannot send Cinder, maybe the girl as her semblance would be useful and that would endear her to myself somewhat.'_ Thoughts for later Salem decided.

"If I may ask Salem?" Cinder ask keeping her tone and posture submissive.

"Ask Cinder." Salem replied this time not trusting her submission. _'We will have to talk face to face before I can confirm how much the power went to her head while hunting for the maiden.'_ Salem resolved.

"Has there been anything out of Haven or Mistral about Lionhearts' work for us?" Cinder asked with a spark of ambition in her eyes.

"No, nothing yet." Salem replied staring at Cinder, not trusting that ambition, "Though we will keep an eye on any possible revelations. I have sent new seers to Mistral and Atlas to keep an eye on them for us. In any case Lionhearts' death is shaping up to be an issue for us, we will have to be ready for any move made by Ozpin and his followers." Salem concluded with a hard tone to her voice and beginning to create plans for handling anything that could come from Lionhearts' death.

"If anything, they would keep quiet" Cinder stated "If it came out that he was the cause of all the huntsmen deaths then Mistral would riot, Haven would be in turmoil and the faunus would lose face as well since he was the highest placed one. Ozpin doesn't want that kind of chaos." Cinder finished with a self-assured smile on her face.

"We could use that to our advantage" Salem replied and continued with a look of contemplation "although depending on what Lionheart wrote down, he could reveal more of my plans then would be expected."

"Though this as well is a loss for Ozpin as he will no doubt discover that Lionheart was working for me which will make him even less trusting." Salem said still thinking about what could come from Lionhearts' death, she continued "Mistral as well as Haven will be kept busy, investigating his death and trying to handle the fallout."

Salem let go of her forming plans for Mistral and Haven and turned her attention back to Cinder who had a look of interest on her face, no doubt working out a way to turn this to her advantage.

"Moving on to Watts, he killed himself when he tried to take over a computer located in an SDC facility, he was sent there to collect information about the SDC's future plans. From the SDC's statement he caused the temperature control system for one of the dust containment fields to malfunction." Salem once again shook her head at the case of stupidity that killed one of her followers.

' _Watts was always arrogant, but to think he didn't even check for any issues or problems.'_ Salem thought disappointed.

Salem continued explaining Watts' death to Cinder "The malfunction caused a buildup of heat which overloaded the containment field which then caused a chain reaction. Through it all Watts disregarded all the warnings that he was given until he was killed in the explosion." Salem paused again and cursed whatever caused all this bad luck.

"Watts caused that? I saw that in the news as well." Cinder replied very confused and assuming Salem's pause allowed her to speak. "The facility and most of the settlement burned to the ground, then the Grimm came and attacked the settlement. Nearly 1000 people, mostly faunus died according to the SDC, so the real number is definitely higher. The White Fang declared that they would have revenge and Adam left Vale for that reason."

"Yes, the actions of Watts caused the death of Adam as well, according to the SDC as you no doubt heard as well." Salem noted and continued while Cinder nodded. "He and the White Fang arrived at about the same time as a quarter of SDC's robots along with a great deal of their huntsmen and huntresses. The Grimm were still in the settlement as well." Salem relayed the information provided by the Grimm. "No information was given by the SDC on how Adam was killed only that him and 50 or so White Fang terrorists were killed in the fight with the rest captured or driven off. The Grimm did not see if Adam was killed as well only that most of the White Fang that was there were either killed or captured."

Salem paused again considered the next steps with the White Fang and the SDC. _'I now have no one I can send to influence the White Fang or steal from the SDC. Only Cinder and the two children.'_

"Though fortunately Watts did provide something good for us in his death, the destruction of the facility will cause further shortages in dust and the deaths of the faunus will cause unrest. This should keep Atlas, Ironwood and Ozpin busy as well. We will be able to move more freely with them distracted." Salem concluded with the first smile on her face since the week began.

"Due to all this you will have to return Cinder. We will have to get rid of the current plans for Haven, Atlas and Beacon without bringing attention to us." Salem said thinking if there were any outstanding issues that could give her problems. She continued "We will then need to recruit more people, hopefully ones who are more useful and competent than Tyrian, Watts or Hazel."

"When will I have to leave Vale?" Cinder asked.

"Immediately and bring your two followers as well. Have Roman rescued or not, it matters not to me, but make sure that he will keep your involvement secret." Salem replied.

"Of course Salem I will leave right away, Roman will keep quiet if he knows what's good for him. Emerald and Mercury will be at your disposal as well." Cinder said while doing a short bow, a look of interest on her face and ambition in her eyes. Salem could see a sly smile on Cinder's face as well.

"I will expect you here by the end of the week Cinder. Deal with the White Fang how you will as well." Salem ordered, her aura flaring. _'Don't think I don't know what you are thinking Cinder, I wonder if you are expecting to be made my second in all matters now that only you are left with your followers.'_ Salem thought as she dismissed Cinder and the seer left. _'Be careful that you don't choke on your ambition Cinder, you are no smarter than and just as arrogant as Watts.'_

Salem went back to looking over the pools of darkness that were spawning new Grimm deep in thought on what to do next and if the bad luck will continue.

* * *

Cinder turned away from the seer as it left and walked into the living room of her Vale hideout, well Roman's old hideout, hers for now. She was going through everything she learned in her conversation with Salem. She would have to return and give up on taking the rest of the maiden's power for now, but with everyone else dead she would be second in command in the future.

' _Second only to Salem herself, isn't that something'_ Cinder dreamed, she would have all the power that she would want, she would be able to direct the lives of everyone living on the planet. _'At the moment Salem needs me as she has no one else that could fulfill her orders. I also have Emerald and Mercury who I can provide to Salem as well. I will be indispensable and once we recruit new people, I will be in command of them.'_ Cinder was working through her plan for her grand future.

' _Yes, the loss of Watts and Hazel will make things difficult for now, but they were never the best at achieving anything for Salem. The less said about Tyrian the better. With them gone and being replaced by people chosen with my input, we could finally gain the power Salem deserves.'_ Cinder thought, her plans forming. It would only be a delay until the new circle is formed, then they will be able to do anything they would want. And she would be at the center of it all, right beside Salem. Her rightful place.

As she sat down to think about her next steps, she called Emerald and Mercury in. A few minutes later they came upstairs from the basement arguing as always.

"Please I could kick Roman's ass any time." Mercury stated a smirk on his face.

"Yeah right, Roman would blast your ass with his cane before you could even dance at him." Emerald shot back a large mocking smile on her face. "Anyways with Roman gone Neo is next and she would tear you a new one, make you her bitch." Emerald continued laughing at Mercury.

"You would get…" Mercury started before he got interrupted by Cinder.

"We have new orders from Salem." Cinder stated, "We have to stop our plans against Beacon and return to the Grimmlands to assist Salem in reworking her plans in the face of what happen over the last week." She finished looking at their confused faces.

"Grimmlands?" Mercury questioned.

"New orders?" Emerald asked.

"Yes" Cinder said "Over the last week a number of Salem's followers were killed in unfortunate incidents. As most of Salem's plans required their involvement, those plans will now have to be changed." Cinder continued a look of superiority appearing on her face "As Salem's last trusted follower I am required to return and assist Salem. You two will be returning with me to help Salem as well."

' _Mercury will follow Salem once he finds out the full truth, but he will not be useful for Salem. Emerald should continue to be loyal to me even in the face of Salem's truth.'_ Cinder thought going over the immediate outcomes of introducing Emerald and Mercury to Salem. _'I will need to keep an eye on Emerald, keep her loyal to me and useful to Salem, between the two of us we should have the most influence in Salem's new circle.'_

"Cinder if I may?" Emerald asked.

"Ask Emerald." Cinder said.

"Who is Salem, I heard you mention her, but you didn't tell us any details about her." Emerald asked a look of confusion on her face.

Mercury jumped in as well to ask, "Why the Grimmlands, there is nothing out there."

Cinder responded to Emerald, with a sigh at Mercury's question "Salem is the one who gave me the ability to take the maiden's power. You will have to meet her to get a full explanation." As Cinder stood up to walk to the door of the hideout she turned to Mercury "Salem's stronghold is in the Grimmlands, the reason will also become evident once you meet her. Do either of you have any further questions?"

"When are we leaving?" Asked Emerald.

"What about Beacon?" Asked Mercury.

"We are leaving immediately" Cinder answered moving to stand beside the door to the street. She continued "Beacon and Vale will be left alone for now. Salem's new plans are more important."

"What about Roman or the White Fang?" Mercury asked with a look of disappointed on his face.

"Shut up Mercury, how can Cinder tell us if you keep interrupting her and if we don't need to know then Cinder doesn't have to tell us." Emerald exclaimed looking angrily at Mercury, she then turned to look at Cinder and asked, "Right Cinder?"

"You are correct Emerald." Cinder replied looking at Emerald's pleased expression. _'So simple to keep her loyal.'_ Cinder thought, she turned to address Mercury.

"We will let Neo know that she can rescue Roman once we leave Vale. We will also inform Roman to keep our involvement in the breach quiet as he is not needed anymore and can be disposed of now at any time." Cinder explained in a neutral tone staring at Mercury. She continued "The White Fang will be dealing with the death of Adam and we will inform them that their part is at an end." She finished and asked in a dismissive tone "Does this answer your questions Mercury?"

"Yes, thanks for letting us know Cinder." Mercury replied looking at Emerald with his eyebrow raised. Emerald shook her head at him and asked, "Any other orders for us?"

"No not at the moment, on the flight to the tower I will let you both know how to act in front of Salem, for now just remember that she will kill you with no hesitation if she deems you useless to her." Cinder informed Emerald and Mercury, both of them gaining a look of shock on their faces.

"Now do you have anything at Beacon that needs to be collected?" Cinder asked.

"Nope I'm all good to leave." Replied Mercury jumping in before Emerald could say anything, a look of challenge on his face.

"I'm good to leave at this moment as well Cinder." Emerald said turning to glare at Mercury.

"Good then we can leave with no delay." Cinder said as she opened the door and stepped out onto the street. She took a look around and saw nothing out of place, a few drunks arguing, people returning from work or whatever else they did during the day. Everything looked as it should.

She took a few steps down the sidewalk and turned to Emerald "Once we leave Vale send the messages to Neo and the White Fang." She ordered.

"Yes of course Cinder." Emerald replied as she followed Cinder onto the street and down the sidewalk looking around for anything that was out of place.

"So, there is nothing else for us to do?" asked Mercury stepping onto the street and closing the door behind him and starting to follow Cinder and Emerald down the sidewalk.

"No, as I said we will discuss next steps on the Bullhead." Cinder replied, "For now Em…."

A loud **CRAAAK** interrupt Cinder.

"Gunshot!" Emerald yelled as she and Cinder activated their aura and dropped into a crouch taking out their weapons. All the other people on the street dropped to the ground, some hid behind cars or under benches.

"Were did that shot come from?" Cinder said as she looked around for the shooter, seeing nothing in any of the surrounding windows or on any rooftop.

"Merc, you good?" Emerald asked.

When neither Cinder nor Emerald heard a reply, they turned their heads around to look at where Mercury was. The sight that greeted them was a shock, as Mercury did not have the time to activate his aura half his head was missing. A large caliber bullet punching a hole through the right side of his head.

"Wha…What?" Emerald asked taking a few looks at Mercury's dead body while sweeping the surroundings for anything.

As no one was coming out and no further shots were heard in the last few seconds Cinder stood up keeping her aura active and started to bring her maiden power to the surface. "Make us disappear Emerald." Cinder ordered.

Emerald activated her semblance and the two of them vanished from the sight of everyone on the street. They both ran down one of the alleyways still cloaked taking several turns down different alleyways. After a turn that found them behind a warehouse they stopped. Emerald dropped the illusion and they reappeared.

They took a second to figure out where they were with Emerald pulling out her scroll and bringing up the map.

' _What was that? Who knew that we were staying at Roman's safehouse? Was that shot meant for me and Mercury just got in the way?'_ Cinder thought, running through any possible people that may have known where they were and had motive to kill them. _'Could it be that Salem was wrong and someone was actually killing all her followers? She is right that it definitely is not Ozpin, assassinations aren't his style. Could it be a new player?'_ Cinder continued thinking, not liking the fact that if it was a new player, they would have to be just a knowledgeable as Ozpin.

"What was that?" Emerald asked looking at Cinder "Who would try and kill us or would want to kill Mercury?"

"I don't know, but I intend to find out." Cinder stated. "For now…"

A **TWAAAAANNNG** interrupted Cinder.

Both Cinder and Emerald looked around and saw that the sound was from a quarrel embedding itself into the wood of a support beam for a shed connected to the warehouse. They both took a couple steps away from the shed keeping an eye out for anything else, they noticed that there looked to be paper wrapped around the quarrel.

"Emerald go and take that paper attached to the bolt." Cinder ordered as she stopped walking and turned her attention to the upper windows of the apartments on the other side of the alleyway.

"Right" Emerald replied, she put her scroll back in her pocket and walked up to the quarrel, keeping her aura up at the maximum possible she slowly unwrapped the paper. After a few seconds of nothing happening she finished unwrapping the paper and turned to Cinder and said, "There is nothing else here, just the paper, the bolt looks to be from a crossbow type weapon."

"What does it say?" Cinder asked looking at the windows of one of the apartment buildings as she noticed a shadow moving through one the of the windows.

"It says **Blood for blood, you killed my son so now I killed yours Marcus, come and find me if you want.** It is signed by someone called Erius, do we know of anyone named that?" Emerald said.

"No, I don't recall knowing anyone called that. From the sound of it he is not concerned with us, just with Mercury and his father." Cinder replied, thinking if she should blast the room with the moving shadow with her fire or her glass. She continued "This Erius must not know that Marcus is dead, wonder if he knew, would he have still killed Mercury?"

' _So, it is a new player, just not tied to our game. That means that Erius must has tracked Mercury down to kill him. He must have been observing us for a while.'_ Cinder concluded, not liking the fact that he must have been tracking them. _'How much did he know? Did he ever get close enough to hear our plans? How did he track us when we were under Emerald's illusion?'_ Cinder resolved that she would have to find out. She would also have to let Salem know as well that someone may know parts of their old plans.

"In any case with Mercury dead we need to leave Vale even quicker now. Cloak us until we get to the Bullhead." Cinder ordered.

"Of course." Emerald replied, she dropped the note and they both disappeared again.

Several minutes of walking down alleyways and dodging people later they arrived at the port and walked into one of the warehouses. It was filled with White Fang members moving crates into several bullheads.

Emerald dropped the illusion and they both reappeared, surprising a couple White Fang members that were sitting near the broken open door guarding it. Both of the guards jumped to their feet and tryed to stop Cinder and Emerald.

"Hey, wait you can't be here!" One of the guards shouted while they both went to grab Cinder's and Emerald's arms. Both Cinder and Emerald shrugged off the guards' grip on their shoulders with Emerald glaring at the guards and they moved into the warehouse.

"What is going on here?" Cinder asked in a loud voice moving toward the center of the warehouse. Emerald following her a few steps behind and the two guards followed after Emerald.

Based on his uniform, what appeared to be a new senior member of the White Fang stepped forward and said "We have new orders from Sienna, due to the death of Adam, the loss of the White Fang that followed him to that SDC settlement and the losses we experienced at the breach, we are pulling most of our non-native members and resources out of Vale and returning them to Menagerie."

"The White Fang is leaving Vale?" Emerald asked moving to stand beside Cinder. Both the guards moving to stand behind Cinder.

The White Fang commander turned to Cinder and said "Yes, we are also letting you know that whatever deal you have with Adam is now finished and that a new deal will NOT be made now. This agreement that Adam had with you lost us too many brave members!"

Cinder handled the shock of this White Fang commander ordering her and did not show it on her face, she also didn't show the smile that started forming once she heard the news. _'This is good, with the Fang pulling out as well there will be less of them in Vale that know pieces of my plan.'_

Emerald stepped in front of Cinder and started to say, "You can't talk to Cinder that way, it's no fault of hers that…." before she got interrupted by Cinder placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Now Emerald, the good commander here is just following his orders. It is true that our agreement was with Adam and not the White Fang as a whole so if they want to change our agreement or have us form a new one with Sienna, they are free to do so. They have been our valuable partner." Cinder said moving to stand beside Emerald her hand still on Emerald's shoulder. A few of the White Fang members surrounding them grumbled at Cinder addressing their High Leader so familiarly.

She looked at the White Fang commander and said "Sienna has good timing; due to some external circumstances we will need to leave Vale as well for a time. So, we came here to let our White Fang partners know that our deal would have to be put on hold for the foreseeable future."

The commander relaxed his posture and said with a growing smile on his face "It is good to know you will know fight us on this. Once all of this is settled you can ask Sienna to consider a new deal, but it would have to be far different than the one that you had with Adam."

"Of course, a new deal for different circumstances makes complete sense. Once the White Fang are finished with their business please notify either Emerald here or myself and we will be glad to contact Sienna to create a new deal." Cinder said to the commander with a wide smile on her face. The surrounding White Fang grumbled even more.

Both Cinder and Emerald walked to their bullhead, Cinder's hand now sliding from Emerald's shoulder to her back pushing her along a bit as Emerald glared at the commander and the guards. The two guards still following them a few meters behind. Once in front of the door to the cockpit Cinder turned to Emerald and whispered, "Check the bullhead for anything out of place while you get it started."

"Of course, Cinder" Emerald whispered back getting into the bullhead and looking around for any signs of tampering or bombs.

Cinder turned back to look at the commander and said, "I wish you and the White Fang the best of luck in rebuilding from the effects of the SDC's and Roman's actions."

"Thank you, I wish you the best in dealing with your external issues as well." The commander replied with a wide obviously fake smile on his face.

' _So, this is the Fang's game, they mean to have our bullhead crash.'_ Cinder thought as she looked at the commander's fake smile and feeling the growing air of expectation from the rest of the Fang members.

"We are good to go." Emerald said her head peaking out of the cockpit door.

"Thank you, Emerald." Cinder said and with a wave of her hand she said "Farewell" to the commander. She then turned around and got into the cockpit.

"So, was there anything?" Cinder asked Emerald in a quiet voice.

"A couple things, what looks to be a tracker and some rewiring." Emerald replied starting the bullhead and taking it up a meter from the ground. "I fixed the rewiring, what should we do with the tracker?" Emerald asked.

"Good job Emerald, they must not have had the time to completely sabotage the bullhead." Cinder stated as she took a quick look around the bullhead and saw a happy look on Emerald's face. She continued "Let them track us, they will be not able to follow us to the Grimmlands."

"Let's go" Cinder ordered Emerald looking down at the assembled White Fang with her own fang filled smile.

As the bullhead pulled up and flew through the hole in the roof and out to sea the White Fang commander was surprised that it didn't crash into the water. He sent a quick message to Sienna about the failure of the tampering and then turned to complete the work that he was assigned.

"That went as well as expected." Cinder said looking forward at the sea deep in thought.

"It did? What do we do now? The White Fang are pulling out and Mercury was killed." Emerald asked as she flew the bullhead along the course that was entered in by Cinder.

"We return to the tower and inform Salem of everything that has happened. Then we help Salem in any of her new plans." Cinder said with a small smile appearing on her face.

"Who is Salem?" Emerald asked.

"The queen of the Grimm, the most powerful being on this planet." Cinder replied looking at the growing shock on Emerald's face. "Salem was betrayed and slighted many years ago and now she wants revenge and to gain the position rightfully owed to her." Cinder explained.

"So, she doesn't what to kill all the humans?" Emerald asked tentatively with a look of fear on her face.

"No, she just wants her rightful place leading the worthy humans." Cinder said still looking at Emerald, focusing on her eyes and continued "And Salem can grant great power to all who are worthy."

"Okay" Emerald said with a tentative look on her face, the fear leaving. "Anything else I should know?" Emerald asked.

"Just treat her as you treat me, and she will find no faults." Cinder replied looking at the course on the bullhead's navigation screen.

As Cinder looked down, she thought if the bad luck that Salem spoke about hit her as well or if everything that happen in the last half hour was good luck.

As Cinder thought she missed the look of uncertainty that appeared on Emerald's face.

* * *

Emerald was flying the bullhead and was very confused _'So Cinder works for the queen of the Grimm, answers to her and calls her the most powerful being on the planet? Who is Cinder really? How much of her power is really Salem's?'_ Emerald could not imagine someone more powerful than Cinder. If Salem granted Cinder her power than what would she be in comparison.

Emerald continued thinking of what the future could bring and how she could serve Cinder when Salem was the real top dog.

She kept coming back to where that left her. _'Mercury is dead so that leaves just me with Cinder and Salem, even though he was an annoying jackass Mercury could have taken some of Salem's attention. Before he was killed by Salem of course for mouthing off one to many times.'_

As Emerald looked over to Cinder staring out of the cockpit looking to be deep in thought she wasn't sure what would meet her in the future. She then remembered Cinder's hand on her shoulder and back while in the warehouse surrounded by White Fang.

Emerald was certain that being at Cinder's side would be the best place to meet any future.

' _I will just have to keep proving myself to Cinder and have her vouch for me to Salem. Cinder said that she is the last trusted follower of Salem, so if Cinder says I'm useful then Salem should agree as well. Right?'_

Emerald turned again to Cinder and asked, "What happened to the rest of Salem's trusted followers?"

Cinder came out of her thoughts with a visible blink and turned to Emerald, "You will get a fill explanation once we talk with Salem, though for now just know that the rest of them died. Once we arrive, we will be involved in making new plans and picking new followers for Salem."

"Okay, I won't let you down Cinder." Emerald replied.

"See that you don't let Salem down, she is less forgiving then I am." Cinder added and then turned back to look out the bullhead cockpit with a growing look of deep thought.

"Riiiiiight" Emerald said with a stutter, a bit shocked.

Emerald look down at their course, it would be several hours before they would land to refuel, then several more hours before the second refueling and finally several hours to get to the Grimmlands. More than a day of travel. She hoped that they would get something to eat along the way.

Before Emerald went back to concentrate on the upcoming no fly zone which housed some of Vale's anti air guns she resolved _'Like I thought at the beginning I will just have to keep Cinder happy and she will handle Salem for me.'_

The bullhead dropped to below the radar detection altitude, Emerald kept her semblance at the ready, preparing to hide the bullhead from any eyes that may look out the windows and silence engulfed the cockpit.

Some hours later a message was sent to Neo saying that Roman could go free and to remember not to say anything to anyone as now that the plan was finished, they would not be needed anymore and could be killed anytime.

* * *

Sienna was annoyed, a more common state of mind then she would have liked it to be, but with the messes that some of her people kept getting into annoyance was a familiar feeling.

' _So, first Adam agrees to some insane humans plan to have the Vale Fang cause a breach which would bring the Grimm from Mount Glenn into Vale. This would cause a mass panic and the deaths of many humans and FAUNUS, which Adam did not think about. Luckily, the breach was handled with very few deaths.'_ Sienna thought in a rage sitting on her throne looking down at the reports sent to her by her new people in Vale.

' _This little action also caused the humans and some faunus to hate the White Fang even more which will not help in our recruitment at all. It will also paint an even larger target on the back of all the White Fang and faunus. All of which Adam also did NOT CONSIDER EITHER!'_ Sienna stopped her rage from climbing, letting out a few calming breathes, she would not want to randomly attack some poor underling.

' _Next after that SDC dust refinement facility melted down and killed all the faunus in the settlement around it, instead of think of a way to put further blame on the SDC or picking a better target. Adam had to go on a rage fueled attack on the remains of that facility which lead to his encounter with the SDC recovery team and all the Grimm that were still around.'_ Sienna stood up from her throne, went down the stairs and started to pace while rereading the reports on the scroll, slightly cracking the screen from how hard she was gripping the device.

' _So, Adam's rage fueled attack leads to his death and the death or capture of most of the Fang that he brought with him, showing the SDC in a positive light and starting rumors that the meltdown was the fault of the Fang!'_ Sienna stopped her pacing and let out an anger fueled huff. She turned around and walked back to sit on her throne.

As she sat down on her throne and looked up from the reports she closed her eyes and thought, _'Right, the positive side, look at the positive side, with Adam dead his supporters have no one to rally around and with his actions causing the deaths of so many faunus and Fang members his supporters have turned away from supporting the actions of those similar to Adam.'_

' _I now have more support than I ever did, even those that still support Ghira and Kali are looking to me to rebuild Vale's Fang and to keep any new Adams in check.'_ Sienna thought if it would be a good idea to get Ghira to support her actions and have him and Kali come out with her and denounce Adam's actions as not something that the White Fang supports.

' _First, we need to get in front of those rumors, make it 100% known that the Fang would never do such an action that would cause the deaths of so many faunus. Then once Cerny finishes his current work in Vale I will need him to start the rebuilding. I can send his sister Sivi as well, with them two leading the rebuilding the Fang in Vale should be fine.'_ Sienna pondered anything else that she would need to do in regard to Vale's Fang at this moment.

Not thinking of anything at the moment she turned her attention back to the report. _'Fortunately, Adam got himself killed before he could start on the Beacon attack. Why would he agree to an attack on a huntsman academy? What did this Cinder promise him? Was it because of Blake going to Beacon?'_ Sienna wondered for a second what Adam and Blake saw in each other and if it was a mistake to have them work together back then.

Sienna sighed and came to be conclusion that it would have been better for them not to have met. Blake might have still been part of the Fang, Ghira would not have been angry at her for letting his daughter work with Adam and Adam would not have developed his obsession with Blake.

Sienna did not understand what caused Adam's obsession with Blake, she didn't see anything special about her. _'Blake is just a flighty girl playing at freedom fighter, when the real hard choices come, she runs away. She ran away from Ghira and Kali instead of staying and arguing with them and she ran away from Adam instead of confronting his growing rage and instability.'_

Sienna shook her head and brought her thoughts back to the reports and away from the relationship angst which looked to have directed most of Adam's actions in the last few months and most of Blake's actions as well.

Sighing again she looked down at the final report and the second bit of good news. _'Looks like along with not going forward with the attack on Beacon this Cinder also had to leave Vale. Unfortunately, the tampering to bring down her bullhead wasn't finished, but she left Vale in the end and faster than anyone excepted.'_ This was good news Cerny and Sivi could do their rebuilding work in peace.

Sienna knew that she would see Cinder come up again, Cerny made sure to tell Cinder than any further agreements would have to be done with her and not some random faction or branch leader. She would be prepared to deal with Cinder again and say no to any further deal which would cause so many faunus deaths.

For now, she would have to focus on rebuilding what Adam lost her and taking advantage of all the good that Adam's bad choices and actions presented.

' _In the end the White Fang will be more powerful and more loyal to me. I will see the Faunus raise to their rightful place.'_ Sienna resolved turning off the cracked scroll in her hands and closing her eyes to ponder her next moves.

* * *

High up the Beacon tower Ozpin stood with a calm expression on his face and looked at Glynda, Qrow and Ironwood who all sat down at his desk.

"Thank you for coming on such short notice I have some news to share which will not be easy to hear." Ozpin started is explanation of what happened over the last week.

* * *

**Chapter One End**

* * *

**So, the bad luck was introduced, the bad luck for who though is the question. Salem needs to rework her plans, Cinder was pulled back from her plans, Beacon survives to teach another day and the White Fang needs to rebuild. How will all this play out?**

**Tyrian, Hazel and Watts needed to be sacrificed for the good of the story, even though they were at times interesting bad guys, Watts especially in Volume 7 once we could see what he did for Salem. Their deaths will bring about some interesting changes. We have no plans for major OCs so Salem will not be getting a legion of doom, but some minor OCs may pop up from time to time.**

**Adam had to die so that Sienna could live and finish her good work. Also, to remove the Fang from the picture for a little while. Cerny and Sivi the brother and sister will be seen from time to time doing their good work, but they will not play a big part of the story. Blake will also go through some FEELINGS once she finds out what happened, any guesses on what she will do and if the rest of RWBY will be pulled into her shenanigans?**

**Lionheart's death will also open a can of worms for poor Ozpin to deal with, depends on what Lionheart wrote down in those notes of his.**

**Mercury's death was needed as well, apart from not being that interesting of a character, even with a backstory as dark as his is. His death introduces Erius who will pop up from time to time to cause headaches and will affect Emerald in a way she doesn't know yet.**

**The next chapter will go over the [Good] guys reactions to all that happened during Salem's bad week and will most likely be shorter than this chapter. Though it may grow. What will Ozpin, Ironwood, Qrow and Glynda think of all this?**

**And don't worry both teams RWBY and JNPR will show up soon for sure in Chapter 3 and maybe in Chapter 2 and then the story will focus on them as they are the main characters. How will they change due to there being no Fall of Beacon? How will all the events in this chapter affect them? Our money is on Blake doing something, but is there even more happening that could affect someone else? Something with the White Fang and SDC? Or the larger number of Grimm running around? Maybe the unrest in Mistral?**

**The Grimm will play a large role in this story, we find them interesting, especially in the later volumes with the amount of abilities that they can have.**

**A quick mention of relationships, we have a grand plan for them, it will be a slowish burn and the end result will make some people not happy and others happy. But isn't that the way all shipping goes? Our hint is that the end result will not really be "story canon".**

**Thank you everyone for reading the first chapter, the longest single chapter that we ever wrote. Some 8300 words and 14.5 pages for the introduction to this story. It will be a big one. We hope to release a new chapter every week and a half or so, maybe weekly, maybe biweekly depending on how long the chapters are and how busy we get.**


	2. Bad Luck for the Good Guys

**Welcome everyone to chapter two of our little story. We would like to say thank you to everyone who took the time to read some random account's 9000-word first chapter and especially to the ones who reviewed or favorited it.**

**The two of us have a running bet of how many views and reviews this story will get. In the end we are writing this for fun and to like writing again. Both of us write a lot for work, but all we write are technical docs or policy docs or standards or legal docs or procedure docs. Writing those can get old fast and it made us not a fan of writing or reading in our downtime.**

**I'm any case we are glad that you are with us on this journey.**

**Of course, we do not own RWBY and we won't make even a nickel from this story, it's all for fun, playing in RoosterTeeth's sandbox.**

**Onwards to Changes in Time.**

**-KostekSocs**

* * *

**Chapter Two – Bad Luck for the Good Guys**

* * *

Ozma was feeling strangely as he stood in his office at the window behind his desk looking out at the landscape of Beacon below him and Vale in the distance, drinking some coffee. He couldn't for the life of him identify each of the emotions he was feeling. He let out a small chuckle at that thought.

The last few weeks have been interesting to say the least and it left him feeling somewhat suspicious of what could come next. Relieved that the worse didn't happen and might not happen at all. All topped off with a growing sense of trepidation and confusion. Some more feelings were in there but one can't focus on everything at once.

' _Now the question was if all that happened was part of Salem's plans or completely unplanned.'_ Ozma pondered on all the events _'The breach was definitely part of Salem's plan, that is for certain. The assault on the Atlas military base by Tyrian started as her plan, but most likely went wrong along the way. Wrong for everyone. The fight in Mistral's lower city and the SDC facility meltdown are the questions.'_ Ozma took a second to take a deep breath and relax his hold on the coffee cup. No use spilling good coffee.

Ozma turned around and sat at his desk, putting his coffee cup down after taking a long sip.

He continued reviewing the reports of the events laying on his desk _'The breach turned out as well as possible, most of the casualties were White Fang members apart from a few unlucky civilians. Lucky for all of us that team RWBY found themselves in the middle of that and that Mister Arc relayed the message he got from Miss Rose. We got a warning and could act quickly.'_ Overall Ozma was feeling okay about the breach, the death of any innocent was too much, but the damage was minimized. Nothing more came out of it.

Once Ozma finished with the report he put down the scroll and leaned back in his chair closing his eyes. _'The breach was an aggressive move and so very close to me, somewhat unusual for Salem. The White Fang and Roman being involved was unusual as well. Someone else must have been in charge of the whole thing, someone sent by Salem.'_

The breach was much too close to Beacon and could have been so much worse. Ozma liked Beacon, it was his creation and he liked his time as Ozpin. The students and Beacon were his to protect, not as Ozma since that was not possible, but as Ozpin. And with Salem looking to make moves so close he would have to keep a very close eye on any actions. _'The question is if Salem would attack Beacon directly to destroy it, or if there was another plan? Was the breach the plan or just a diversion? Was it possible that Salem wasn't even involved and it was just something cooked up by the White Fang and Roman? But then why would….'_

Ozma opened his eyes again and refocused on the scrolls on his desk. _'One thing at a time, no sense in spiraling.'_

The attack on the Atlas military base was a greater concern, _'Why would Salem send Tyrian to the base? Was he sent alone? The destruction of half the base in the explosion was a bad result for everyone, luckily most of the people managed to evacuate the base during the fight so the losses were far less than they could have been. Though the loss of so many was too high a price for riding the world of Tyrian.'_

Ozma placed down the report and sighed, two negative events in just over a week with three more to go and so many lost lives. Ozma looked up at the clock, so that's why he felt so tried, sitting at his desk for 5 hours reading reports and talking with the Vale council. Ugh, there were times he missed his time as a free warrior, no paperwork, no petty politics, no schedules.

Ozma let out another short chuckle, _'Maybe it was time for me to go back in the field, call out Salem for a one on one battle like in the old days…... Wouldn't that be something.'_ "Hahaha" he shook his head while laughing, but no the world couldn't know of Salem, the amount of panic that would cause…. It would be a massacre. He focused on the clock again, they would be here soon. He would have to go over the findings set to him from Mistral, which would not be a fun conversation. Also, the whole SDC mess.

As Ozma went through his thoughts he stood up and walked to the window looking out at Beacon again, one thing that he was certain of was that the last week would change everything

A **Bing** interrupt his thoughts and as he turned around he saw Glynda, Qrow and James walk out of the elevator. Ozpin motioned them to sit and as they took a seat he walked up to his desk.

Standing in front of his seat he looked at Glynda, Grow and James and said "Thank you for coming on such short notice, we have much to talk about and some of the news will not be easy to hear."

Ozpin took a seat and before he could talk Qrow took a sip from his flask and asked "So Oz what's going on? What's so important that you had me leave my mission?"

"Yes, surprisingly I'm with Qrow on this one, what's so important? I had to leave a meeting with the council, they want half of the forces I brought to Vale back in Atlas." James said with a look of impatience on his face.

"Thanks, Jimmy, for agreeing with me." Qrow added smiling at James.

"Qrow, now is not the time." Said Glynda sending Qrow a look while keeping an eye on James.

Ozpin looked over his inner circle as they argued, each so different and so very likely to annoy each other, but each with the same kind of heart, each looking to protect the world in their own way. Ozpin knew that he didn't truly trust people, not after millennia of betrayals, but these three came as close to having his trust as anyone did in a very long time.

Ozpin took a longer drink of coffee and started talking "As so much happened over the last week and a half I thought that it would be good to meet and bring each other up to speed on what's going on. I also have some news that I want to share with you three that will be unpleasant. Where would you all like me to start?"

Qrow jumped in again "Well we all know what happened, attack in Vale, attack on an Atlas military base, SDC building blew up, a fight in the lower city of Mistral, Lionheart dead and Taurus dead. Plenty civilians dead, Grimm everywhere. I vote for starting with the new news."

"Yes, while Qrow could have said it better, we have all been dealing with the events of the last week. I vote for the new news as well, better to get to the unpleasantness now." Said Glynda with a calm look on her face turning to look at Ozpin after glaring at Qrow.

"Yes, let's deal with your unpleasant news Ozpin. I have been dealing with everything else that went wrong over the week, so what's one more thing." James said while shaking his head putting his hand onto his head clearly feeling the week catch up to him.

Ozpin took a breath getting ready for the incoming shouts and gave his news "As you all know the fight in Mistral's lower city caused the death of Lionheart. Why he was down there or why he was involved in the fight we don't know, but after his death the Mistral authorities went through everything Lionheart left behind in his office." Ozpin took a pause to gather his thoughts again and prepare for the upcoming noise.

"Well what did they find?" asked Qrow taking a drink.

"Luckily the Captain of the police and the chief judge are friends of mine so I could keep this news secret for now." Ozpin said still stalling. _'This will not be a good conversation, Glynda will accept my recommendation on how to handle the news and Qrow will have his comments, but will probably be up for the mission I have for him. James might be an issue; I will have to play it by ear with him.'_

"Please just say what it is Ozpin." James stated looking at Ozpin with a tired look on his face. Qrow and Glynda both nodded supporting James request.

"Well based on the notes the investigators found on Lionheart's scroll and computer, unencrypted, but in a hidden folder and based on some of the journals in his office it looked like Lionheart was communicating with Arthur Watts, Hazel Rainart and Tyrian Callows. It also looks like Lionheart was responsible for sending many of Mistral's huntsmen and huntresses to their deaths, to be killed by Tyrian and Hazel." Ozpin took a pause looking at Qrow's, Glynda's and James's shocked faces.

Ozpin continued before anyone could jump in with a question as he saw Qrow's mouth beginning to move. "Based on the evidence that was found it looks like Lionheart was working for Salem. To what degree or for how long I don't know yet, but the investigators are continuing to go through Lionheart's personal affects, so we should know more soon. It seems like my trust in Lionheart was wrongly placed."

Ozpin let out a breath before Qrow jumped to his feet and along with Glynda and James shouted "What?"

James stood after his shout and looked at Ozpin "How is this possible, Lionheart a traitor? When did he join Salem? How much information did he give?"

Before Ozpin could reply Glynda asked "You said that he was working with this Tyrian and Hazel to kill Mistral's huntsmen and huntresses?"

"Well…." Ozpin started before Qrow interrupted "Would that mean that the Zhong or Crystalis families work for Salem as well?"

Before Ozpin could say anything Glynda asked "Do we know how many Lionheart sent to their deaths" in a voice so cold that Ozpin felt a chill run down his back and some primordial fear take hold in the back of his mind. James and Qrow both looked at Glynda as well, sitting down instinctively as they felt the icy hand of death grab hold of them.

' _Why do I feel that Lionheart got the easy way out'_ Ozpin thought while looking at the look in Glynda's eyes.

"We hav…" Ozpin started again before James turned from looking at Glynda to staring at Ozpin and asked, while shaking away some of the chill, "What are going to do to keep the Mistral police or court system from finding out about Salem?"

Before anyone else could interrupt him Ozpin started talking "I don't know when Lionheart joined Salem or to what degree yet, only that it would have been months ago. I also don't know what information he passed on to Salem, so far we know it's been names of huntsmen and some mission specifics. The police are still going through Lionheart's notes, once they have more of them, we will know more." Ozpin paused for a second and looked at Glynda "We don't have any numbers on how many he sent to their deaths, only that it is in the dozens, possibly hundreds. Once again we will know more in time."

' _Well I was right this is a fine mess and I still haven't gone through my plan or the SDC mess'_ Ozpin thought while looking at this people processing what he said.

"For your question Qrow I don't know if either family works for Salem, but I suspect that they don't. What Lionheart's business was with them we will have to wait to find out." Ozpin said calmly while looking at Qrow.

Taking advantage that all three were still processing Ozpin continued "I do have a plan to find out more and to keep everything about Salem quiet if you three would hear me out?"

"What's your plan Ozpin?" asked James

"At the moment the only thing that they know is that Lionheart worked with known criminals, I propose that we inform Mistral's police that we suspect that Salem is some hidden boss of a criminal network. We would not be stretching the truth too much with that. Also, for Qrow to go to Mistral as Beacon's representative to be involved in the investigation. This way any new information should come to us right away and Qrow would be able to hide or deflect anything we don't want them to know."

Ozpin took a pause before continuing "At the same time James I would like for you to get involved as well as Watts is an Atlesian criminal that disappeared, so him working with Lionheart would be of interest to Atlas."

"I have a feeling that I would have been involved in the investigation either way." Replied James with a sigh looking tired again.

"Sure Oz, babysitting cops sounds better than wondering around looking for signs." Qrow said while making air quotes when he said signs. Qrow continued rather taking a drink "I'll have to let Tai know and drop by Yang and Ruby to say hi, then I can go."

' _That was too easy, I thought there would be more push back. Maybe James really is as overworked as he looks and I guess Qrow would be happy doing something with a goal and working against Salem.'_ Ozpin thought looking from Qrow to James.

He then turned his attention to Glynda "As it's too late to reschedule the tournament, it will have to go forward, though we will have to keep an eye on all the Haven students to see how they behave. As Lionheart was working for Salem, he may have sent people posing as students."

"I'll let Peter and Bart know to be on the lookout for strange behaviour from the Haven students due to the death of their headmaster." Glynda replied looking to be deep in thought.

Ozpin nodded "Good if we are all in agreement for our plan to deal with Lionheart then I have a couple other things I want to discuss." After finishing he looked from Qrow to James to Glynda who were all deep in thought. James pulled out his scroll and looked at Ozpin.

"Any further details can be worked out later or when we discover the full actions of Lionheart. Though Atlas will want a full summary as well." James said while noting something down on his scroll.

"That can be provided when the time comes." Replied Ozpin then after taking a breath he continued "Moving on, due to the breach being so near to Beacon and then all the events over the last week I suspect that Salem had a plan which did not work out or did not deliver the results she wanted. She may be getting more aggressive because of the failure or because that is the plan. Either way we need to be prepared."

He turned to Glynda again "Unfortunately we need to consider that Salem may attack Beacon directly, as such we need to have the students prepared. I already cancelled several of the third- and fourth-year missions as we will need those students ready to fill in for the Vale huntsmen and huntresses sent to deal with the increased Grimm activity or sent to help Mistral. After the first and second years are finished with the tournament, they will need to be put into a more intensive training program. I will share my plan at the next staff meeting."

Glynda nodded after Ozpin finished explaining "Sounds reasonable, if Salem is targeting us directly, we will need to be prepared."

"Yes, and if we believe Lionheart's notes, with Salem losing at least 3 of her followers: Tyrian, Hazel and Lionheart, she may become more desperate or more involved herself in whatever plans she has." Ozpin said. As he turned his attention to James and Qrow and continued "While working with Haven and Mistral we will have to keep an eye out for anything that is out of place. Salem might have had further plans for Haven so I suspect there is more to discover."

"Anything else going on with Haven?" asked James putting his scroll away.

"No nothing yet apart from the general confusion, Haven's staff did not know of Lionheart's plans and none of them looks to have been involved with Salem according to the information we currently have." Ozpin replied.

James nodded and sighed "So something may come up and surprise us still?"

Ozpin nodded and replied "Yes, and until we have all of Lionheart's notes, we don't know what we don't know. Something new will definitely come up."

"That's excellent, the Atlas council will definitely like that." James said sarcastically while shaking his head.

"So, we are all set to deal with Lionheart? Anything else?" asked Qrow looking from James to Ozpin.

Both Ozpin and James replied with a "Nothing else for now" in response to Qrow's question.

"As we went through the breach response and what to do with Lionheart situation, is there anything else Ozpin?" Glynda asked.

Ozpin turned his attention to Glynda and replied "Yes there is one last situation I would like to discuss now, anything else can wait until we get more details." he paused to take a drink of his coffee, which was slowly getting cold.

' _Okay that's Lionheart, Haven and Mistral dealt with for now, the students will be getting more serious in response to Salem's nearing attacks. All that's left to cover is the SDC mess and any concerns from James.'_ Ozpin thought while still going over next steps _'Hopefully nothing more will come out of Lionheart's notes and I will need to be more involved in the choosing of Haven's next headmaster.'_

Ozpin sighed quietly taking another sip and bringing his attention to James, Glynda and Qrow _'I created the academies to run without my oversight and prepare the next generations of huntsmen and huntresses to stand against Salem. Now Haven was under Salem's influence, Shade barely gets by, Atlas is more of a military academy than a huntsmen one and Beacon increasing looks to stand alone against Salem. It looks like I need to become more involved and Beacon will need to get stronger. Salem must be contained.'_

Ozma had a quick feeling of determination in his gut that he hadn't felt in years, centuries even, not since he learned that he couldn't destroy Salem. Strangely he was feeling good with his resolution.

"As you all three know following the destruction of the SDC refinement facility and most of the settlement the White Fang vowed revenge for the deaths of all the faunus workers in what they said was SDC oversight that caused the disaster. Then the White Fang lead by Adam Taurus attacked the SDC facility not knowing that the SDC sent a recovery team or that much of the Grimm that attack during the disaster were still in the settlement." Ozpin then looked to James and motioned for him to continue.

James started talking while Ozpin took another sip of coffee "Yes, the mistimed White Fang attack caused the death or capture of most of the members that followed Taurus there. Adam Taurus himself was also killed. Which caused the White Fang in Atlas to declare further vengeance. We have already seen attacks in Atlas and on some SDC facilities. At the moment we don't know if the attacks are targeted or not."

After taking a pause to sort through his thoughts James continued "Atlas is still waiting on the full report from the SDC over the cause of the meltdown. Some in the SDC suspect that it was a White Fang attack gone wrong as the systems should not fail in the way that it looks like they did. Depending on what they find it may agitate the SDC and White Fang even more."

"So, we might be looking at a larger war between the Fang and the SDC?" asked Qrow.

Both Ozpin and James nodded.

"Wonderful." Qrow sighed.

"That could cause issues with the students and during the tournament. We will need to be on the lookout for that." Said Glynda while writing down some notes on her scroll.

"Yes, with all the teams that are here it may present an opportunity for the White Fang or the events may cause arguments between the students." replied Ozpin to Glynda's and James's nodding.

Ozpin finished off his coffee and nodded to his three followers "That covers what I wanted to talk about, with the events that happened and Salem making more aggressive moves we will all need to be ready. If there are no questions or concerns?"

"Nothing at the moment." replied Glynda.

"I'm good." replied Qrow.

"We will need to go over some concerns that the Atlas council has, but that can be covered at a later date." said James.

"Wonderful then thank you for coming, Qrow please let me know when you would be ready to leave, and James please keep me up to date of any developments from your end. Glynda I would like to talk to you sometime before the next staff meeting to go over my plans." Ozpin said as he stood up along with Glynda, James and Qrow.

"Keep me informed as well, I need to take my leave now to make it for my next call." said James while he shook Ozpin's hand and after saying farewell to Glynda headed to the elevator.

Glynda said a quick "Take care James" while he left and Qrow saluted him with his flask. Once James went into the elevator she turned around to Ozpin "James seems distracted, he barely said anything during the meeting."

Qrow added "Yeah James was really out of sort."

"I'm not really surprised, as James is the headmaster of Atlas Academy, general of the Atlas military and a council member. Three full time jobs he does not have the time for. I recommended that he make his council time limited or he leave the military and focus only on Atlas Academy, but he said no to my recommendations." Ozpin shook his head at James's stubbornness and continued "He said that due to the threat of Salem and the fact that so little people are in the know, he needs to keep as many positions of power as possible to protect them and the people if one of Salem's followers got one of the positions."

"James was always stubborn and not that trusting, and when he learned of Salem he sadly got worse. Hopefully he will take better care of himself. If not then I might need to introduce some sense into that head of his." Glynda commented as she was walking towards the elevator, she turned around "Ozpin, please let me know a time for that meeting. If there is nothing else, I have a detention I have to oversee."

"Have a good night Glynda." Ozpin replied.

"Night Glyndie." Qrow said while waving.

As Glynda entered the elevator Qrow turned around to Ozpin "So anything else?"

"Not really, though please keep an eye on James when he is working with you and let me know when you are ready to leave for Haven." Ozpin said while collecting the scrolls scattered on his desk.

Qrow walked to the elevator and before entering waved to Ozpin and said "Sure Oz, I always keep an eye out for any trouble. Night"

As the elevator doors closed Ozma stood up from his desk picked up one of the scrolls and walked to the window. _'We should be ready for anything new that can come up from either Lionheart or the SDC. Unfortunately, it looks like it will be a busy for the next few months while we deal with everything. And I still need to find a new maiden, hopefully James's machine will work until the festival is done.'_

Ozma looked over the scroll in his hand, minutes from the last month's council meeting, almost 3 hours of nothing getting done. Though if he remembered correctly there was some discussion of Roman in that meeting and that could give him a clue into Roman's possible actions.

Ozma sighed again, well no rest for the weary.

Over two hours later as Ozma was reading though next meeting's notes, walking around his office trying to get some blood flowing to his legs he got interrupted by his office phone ringing.

He walked over and picked it up "Yes, this is Ozpin?"

"Hello Ozpin, this is Captain Themis, I have some bad news for you."

"Hello Astria, what happened?" Ozma asked curious.

"About 5 minutes ago there was a shooting in Vale, the result was one death."

"That's unfortunate, is it a relative of a student? Is that why you are contacting me?" asked Ozma, feeling a bit of anticipation.

"No, we just confirmed the identity, it is a student from Haven that came for the festival, one Mercury Black. He was in the company of two women, huntresses according to the bystanders who vanished immediately after the shooting."

"Vanish?"

"Disappeared into thin air, some who saw it think that it might have been a semblance. We are investigating were the two huntresses could have gone, if you see them in or around Beacon please send them to me. I will send you a full report and the description of the two women."

"I will, thank you for letting me know, I'll contact Haven to pass on the news. Please let me know if you need any information of if there is anything Beacon can do."

"I will, goodnight Ozpin"

Ozma replied "Goodnight Astria" and hung up the phone.

' _Mercury Black from Haven dying just after Lionheart…. Could be nothing, could be something. One more thing for me to look into. And to think I thought I would get some decent sleep tonight.'_ Ozma made another mug of coffee and pulled up Mr. Black's student record and saw Lionheart's signature on it with some basic information. _'This isn't right, no notes, just a record, could be a fake, looks worse than Mr. Arc's fake. The question is if Mr. Black worked for Lionheart or Salem or both. I will also have to track down his team members, Cinder Fall and Emerald Sustrai and Neo Sloinne.'_

As Ozma pulled up their records and saw the same issue he rubbed his eyes and sat down in his chair _'Well I wanted to know if Lionheart sent a false team and it looks like he did, for what purpose though is the question. And how did the records pass the check? More things to look into.'_

Ozma sighed again and started pulling up any information that was available for all four students knowing that he would probably not be getting any sleep.

* * *

James was walking around his office on his flagship going through his notes _'Lionheart a traitor, SDC and the White Fang gearing up for more fights, Salem making moves. So much happening so quickly. Add to that Ozpin being his usual self. What else could go wrong?'_

While thinking through his steps in dealing with Haven and Mistral James was interrupted by a call.

"Ironwood here."

"Sir, this is Lt. Mereny"

"Yes Lieutenant?"

"Roman Torchwick is escaping, he is not in his cell and we are getting reports of him all over the ship!"

"WHAT? How? Why isn't he being caught?" James yelled while running to his door and then running towards the bridge.

"The camera system and internal sensors look to be malfunctioning and we are getting reports that some of our own people are helping him escape or that when someone goes to grab Torchwick he is actually an illusion!"

"Have all available units search the ship, lock down everything, he can't be allowed to escape!" James ordered while running through the doors and onto the bridge. He was greeted by several "Sir!" and turned to his first officer.

"What's the situation Commander?"

"We just heard from Lt. Mereny a moment before he contacted you, we can't track Torchwick, the malfunctioning systems are preventing that. We confirmed that the malfunction is some sort of virus, but that someone infected the system through an onboard terminal. At the moment we cannot remove the virus, we may need to do a full reboot and restore of the systems." Explained the commander.

"Virus? And the infection was from someone onboard?" James asked shocked

"Yes sir, the techs confirmed that it is the only way for this to have happened. The virus has also spread to the other ships in Vale." Confirmed the commander pointing to the errors on the screens and giving her scroll to James with the information from the techs on it.

An operations lieutenant turned to James "Sir the search units are done with the first 3 decks, they are now splitting up to search the lower decks and the hold."

"Thank you, lieutenant." James replied while turning back to Commander Leaven "Any updates from the techs?"

"No sir, they are working to isolate some of the sensors from the rest of the system." She replied while entering something into her workstation.

As she was writing and James was looking over the screens a communication interrupted both of them "Sir, this is Sergeant Vert from the hanger, all gunships and bullheads are accounted for and I have people guarding all entry points, but there is one escape capsule missing. I have no records of it leaving."

James turned to the operations lieutenant and his first officer "Are the external sensors working properly, I'm not seeing anything on sensors."

"I don't know sir, I'm having the techs review the external sensors, but I'm not seeing any errors" replied the operations lieutenant.

Commander Leaven got an update on her workstation "Sir, I just got confirmation from the techs that the virus is affecting the radar and lidar, we are seeing repeating information."

"Damn, is the virus affecting any of the gunships?" James asked.

"Sergeant Vert is not sure; he is getting the Chief to go through the gunships to confirm." Replied Leaven.

"The second that they are sure that the gunships are safe to fly I want all of them scrambled and searching for Torchwick, we cannot lose him." Ordered James sending additional orders to the search teams to continue with the full sweep of the ship.

' _Damn it, this will not turn out well if it gets out, I need to find Torchwick fast without notifying Vale's council.'_ James though as he pondered on his next steps in the hunt for Torchwick.

James heard a ping coming from Commander Leaven's workstation and turned to see what it was about.

"Sir we have partial internal sensors and cameras, the techs are still working on external sensors. We also got confirmation that the virus affected the command and control system for the bots." Reported Leaven, going through her updates.

"Disable the C&C system and the bots, are we seeing anything on internal?" James ordered and asked.

Operations lieutenant Hall turned to James "Nothing on the internal sensors we have sir, the techs are reporting that the virus is spreading to all systems operating on the secondary core, the systems on the primary core are clean and have been isolated."

"That's some good news, flight systems and weapons aren't compromised." replied James looking at the screens on the bridge not seeing anything that would indicate where Torchwick was.

A few minutes later Leaven got an update and turned to James "Sir we have an update from the techs, based on what they are seeing and the fact that this virus looks able to spread to any Atlas command system they are recommending we dock and do a full reboot of all affected systems. They are not sure how long they are able to keep it contained."

Before James could reply he got interrupted by a communication "Sir Lt Mereny here, the teams are reporting that they have finished their sweeps, so far they have found nothing. All the reports of crew helping Torchwick seem like fakes as the people seen helped were somewhere else on the ship or did not exist as a member of the crew. We suspect someone with an illusion type semblance had to have helped Torchwick. We are moving to a stage three sweep; we are estimating completion of the sweep in 30 minutes."

"Keep me up to date lieutenant." James ordered, he then contacted Vert and asked "Any updates on the status of the gunships?"

"Nothing at the moment sir, the Chief is still going through one. So far from what we know if the C&C for the bots was infected, the gunships may become infected once fully activated. Permission to activate one gunships sir?" Vert reported and asked.

"Granted." James replied.

"Sir, we are getting a comm from Atlas, it's Specialist Ebi." A comms officer reported.

James brought up Clover's comm on his scroll and asked, "Yes Clover, what's your update?"

"I arrived at the SDC facility with Marrow and Harriet, we met with the lead SDC huntsmen and we are taking over the investigation here. The SDC doesn't seem happy about it so you might get an angry message from them"

"Good to hear Clover, keep me up to date with any findings. I'll pass your report to the council as well." James replied.

Leaven turned to James "Sir, we have any update from the techs, all external sensors are active, but they can't guarantee for how long."

"Good, start scans for the escape capsule." James ordered.

"Yes Sir!" Hall replied.

"Should we leave Atlas and help you in Vale Sir?" asked Clover sounding confused.

"No, stay there, get to the bottom of what happened, we can resolve this situation." Replied James.

With a "Yes sir, best of luck." Clover finished the call. Once the call finished James started thinking.

' _How could Torchwick do all this? Someone with an illusion semblance? How did they get on board? How did the virus spread so easily and quickly and how did it give them so much control of our secondary systems?'_ James was sure that this meant that there was a larger operation in motion, one that Torchwick was part of. As he was thinking an update from the hanger deck came.

"Sir, Vert here we have an update, the Chief just finished with his inspection of the gunship, the crew found that the only issue is when the gunship connects to the IFF system. Once the connection is established the weapons turn on and target everyone." Vert reported.

"Good, scramble the gunships, don't connect to the IFF system and don't bring any Knights." James ordered Vert, he turned to Leaven and continued "This will have to be a covert operation as well. Once all the units are ready let them know the mission parameters."

"Yes sir." Replied Leaven sending orders to the required teams.

James picked up his scroll and called Winter for an update "Specialist what's your status?"

"I'm on my way to Vale now sir, I finished the coordination work to integrate SDC huntsmen, huntresses and security into Clover's command. My father was not please." Reported Winter finishing her report off with a light sigh.

"Good, let me know once you are near, we have a situation in progress." James said moving from his workstation to the command terminal.

"Yes sir, Specialist Schnee out."

As James watched updates come in from the teams setting out for the search and from the techs working on the virus, he thought of how Vale's questions could be dealt with and how to keep Ozpin uninvolved as well.

' _This needs to be dealt with quickly and quietly, without Vale and Ozpin knowing, then I will need to start the investigating into Torchwick's full plan and into how he or his associates got their hands on this virus. Clover will be able to handle the SDC investigation for know.'_

* * *

Ghira was confused as he looked at a message from Sienna _'She wants Kali and me to release a statement with her disavowing Adam's actions and pledging White Fang support for the faunus victims of the SDC refinery's meltdown. What's her plan?'_

While Ghira was thinking Kali walked into his office "What do you have there that's causing such a look on your face?"

Ghira looked up at Kali "Oh this, it's a message from Sienna" Ghira ignored Kali's growl at Sienna's name and continued "she wants us to release a statement with her disavowing Adam's actions and pledging support for the victims. I just don't know what her game is."

Kali shook her head and sat down on Ghira's desk in front of him "I don't know either, maybe Adam finally went too far and she has to come out and say it. Maybe it's the fact that some people are saying that the meltdown was caused by the White Fang."

"Sounds possible, we will have to arrange a meeting with Sienna to go through her actual proposal and all the information that she says she has." replied Ghira and continued on "Sienna also says that she has some news about Blake and some news that may affect Blake."

"How could Sienna have news about our Blake? Blake has nothing to do with the Fang anymore after leaving." Kali wondered feeling the hole in her heart from Blake's sudden exit from their lives.

' _I wish that our kitten could write to us or call us at least once, just to let us know how she is. So that we don't have to get information about her from Sienna of all people.'_ Kali thought with a huff looking at the message on Ghira's scroll.

Kali looked up at Ghira with a small sly smile "If Sienna is serious about her proposal, we should have her meet us today in 10 minutes or during the weekend at lunch or dinner. Have her sit through a full meal with us."

"What are you planning?" Ghira asked with a loving sigh.

"Nothing to worry about my dear, just arrange the meeting and then leave the meeting to me." Kali replied with a large smile and walk off with a bounce in her step after getting a quick kiss.

Ghira let out a quick laugh and sent the meeting invite to Sienna.

' _Kali is right that the statement is probably because of the rumors that the Fang caused the meltdown and the deaths of all the faunus living and working at the facility. She needs to get in front of that rumor and she needs to handle the actions of Adam.'_ Ghira thought ending his line of thought with an angry scowl.

' _Serves both Sienna and Adam right, taking the White Fang into a violent direction could have only ended in violence. And giving Adam so much freedom to do what he wanted to do only made the violence worse. Pity it took so many faunus deaths and Adam's death for Sienna to realize that escalating violence is not the way to gain recognition or equality.'_ Ghira thought angrily and somewhat disappointed. So much death and destruction from a group that he and Kali formed for peaceful activism.

As Ghira though about wasted opportunities and what Sienna could possibly say about Blake, Kali was walking towards the dining room with a plan and a binder.

' _If Sienna wants Ghira and me to sign on to her statement she will need to earn it.'_ Kali thought as she opened the binder, in it were pictures of a young Sienna playing and, in each picture, she was playing with something: with yarn, with a stuffed teddy bear, in a box with a young Blake.

' _Yes, if Sienna wants our help, she will need to suffer for it'_ Kali laughed leaving the binder on the table, ready to be picked up and shown off once Sienna comes for the meeting.

A few hours later, as both Kali and Ghira were relaxing in the living room, Ghira got a message from Sienna confirming that she will be able to make if for dinner on Saturday. As he told Kali she got a large smile on her face.

"What's that look for Kali?" asked a wary Ghira, he had seen that look on his wife's face before and no good ever came from it for the people that Kali targeted.

"Like I said my love, nothing to worry about, Sienna will just need to prove that she really wants our help." Replied Kali, her smile growing even wider.

"Right" said Ghira thinking _'Why do I feel that Sienna did not take Kali into consideration when she contacted me to get our support. Oh well, I'll find out tomorrow when Sienna comes for the meeting. And its Kali, it won't be anything bad, maybe embarrassing, but not bad.'_

* * *

As Ozma thought, James plotted, Glynda finished planning the next staff meeting, Qrow slept after talking with Tai, Ghira worried and Kali waited for the start of her sweet revenge, Beacon was a busy place even so late at night.

A harried Yang was power walking down one of Beacon's corridors looking for Blake, after not finding her in their room, the library, the common room, or the cafeteria Yang was running out of places she could be hiding.

' _I wonder were Blakey could have ninjaed off to, whatever she got in that update on her scroll must have been bad or important for her to just leave the room.'_ Yang was wonder what the news could be and what her sometimes impulsive partner could do. _'And everyone calls me the impulsive one.'_

Well there were a couple times that she acted without thinking that came to mind, but she was getting better and she raised Ruby. So, Yang did not buy into the common agreement that she was the impulsive one, maybe hotheaded but not impulsive.

As she turned a corner, she heard the distinctive laughter of her sister. _'Maybe Ruby would know were Blake could be and I can ask Ruby where she was for most of the day and what she is doing out so late.'_ Ugh, her mom side was showing again, Yang didn't really like when that side of her showed up, though she was getting better at just rolling with those types of thoughts.

Walking around another corner she saw Ruby laughing with Jaune, holding her scroll in front of him. _'Wonder what Rubes is showing him that's so funny.'_ Yang took a second to look at Ruby and Jaune laughing together, Ruby pointing something out on her scroll.

' _Say what you want about Jaune, he turned out to be good for Ruby, treats her no different than anyone else, lets her dork out with him.'_ At the beginning Yang wasn't sure about Jaune, her sister bonding so quickly with a guy threw her for a loop. What would some 17-year-old guy want with her sister, but that was before she got to know Jaune and now she was more worried about Ruby pulling him into something than the other way around.

"Hi Rubes, Hi Vomit Boy" Yang called out as she walked up to both of them.

"Hi Yang" Ruby replied quickly with a smile on her face.

"Ugh, hey Yang, do you have to call me that?" said Jaune looking up at the sky with a sigh when she called him their nickname for him.

"Yes, I have to" retorted Yang to Jaune's sigh.

"So, what's up Yang?" asked Ruby jumping in front of Yang.

"Looking for Blakey, she got some news and vanished, can't find her. Have either of you seen her?" Yang asked looking from Ruby to Jaune.

* * *

Deep under Beacon inside a hidden basement the beeping of a machine stopped and Amber, the Fall Maiden passed away.

* * *

Far away in a tower Cinder felt a weird feeling of power run through her body, confused at what it could have been she started to walk to Salem.

* * *

**So, the bad news hit our good guys and a bit more bad news was added, how will Ozpin and James figure out their next steps? What's going to happen when Roman pops up again? What's going to happen with Amber dead? Will Qrow be pulled into something?**

**How will everything that's going on affect RWBY and JNPR?**

**Say hello to several OCs, some may make their appearance again, most might not.**

**We used Ozma or Ozpin based on what he was doing or thinking, please let us know if that is confusing or not.**

**With this chapter finished the exposition and setup is finished as well, so starting in chapter 3 we move on to the story. Jumping into the conversation between Yang, Ruby and Jaune and into where Blake ran off to.**

**Some quick notes, the updates may become else frequent over late May, the relationships – both romantic and friendly – have been set and we think that they will be a surprise for most people.**

**Thank you everyone for reading Chapter 2 of our story**

* * *

**To answer some questions, we based what Emerald's semblance could do from what she did at the end of the Haven fight, if she could show everyone in the room Salem then all she needs is to know who is there that she can target, focusing per person doesn't seem like something she needs to do.**

**We also based Neo's semblance off what she did in Atlas, and we added that she had some knowledge of the virus and how it works, one of the conditions of Roman's and Neo's silence that Cinder had to pay.**


	3. Chapter Three – A Wandering Yang and A Worried Jaune

**Welcome everyone to chapter three of our story. We would like to say thank you to everyone who took the time to read some random account's story and especially to the ones who reviewed or favorited it.**

**As we noted at the end of the last chapter, the starting exposition is done and we are getting into the story now. As a couple reviews noted, we did make some changes to the canon, but those we think would be all the major changes so far: what Cinder told Emerald about Salem and that Emerald can use her semblance for aoe without getting a massive backlash – thanks reviewer for pointing that out. We will be make some changes to canon here and there.**

**Please let us know if we screw something up majorly, IT guy just watched through the show once, some episodes twice and is relying on the RWBY Wiki for most details. Marketing girl knows the show better but has forgotten some details of the middle volumes and also relies on the wiki.**

**In any case we are glad that you are with us on this journey.**

**Of course, we do not own RWBY and we won't make even a nickel from this story, it's all for fun, playing in RoosterTeeth's sandbox.**

**Onwards to Changes in Time.**

**-KostekSocs**

* * *

**Chapter Three – A Wandering Yang and A Worried Jaune**

* * *

Yang was feeling triumphant as she just finished the 5000-word report for Oobleck that was due next week, sure it took the better part of the evening and in to very late, but she was done. _'Ha! Take that Weiss, who says that I never finish my work on time. Just because I don't have to start my work right away like you, doesn't mean that I don't have time management skills.'_

As Yang stood up rolling her shoulders and stretching her back and arms to get the kinks of hours of sitting and writing out of them, she took a look around the workroom she was in to find it completely empty. _'Well, I guess everyone finished or left for bed already, luckily it's Saturday tomorrow so I can sleep in.'_ she looked to her right _'Though I wonder where Blake went, all her stuff is here, she got that message on her scroll and said she had to take it and left.'_

Thinking that Blake might have went to their room already, Yang collected their things and made her way to their room. Beacon was pretty empty for a Friday night which let her make good time. As she walked, she was curious about what the message could be and if that meant that for the first time since Blake's whole White Fang investigator phase, she finished her assignment before Blake. _'Going to rub that in Blakey's and Weiss-cream's faces, done before the two smart ones.'_

After saying hi to a few people along the way Yang made it to her room checking her scroll and seeing no new messages from Blake, she walked into the room and looked around _'Weird, only Weiss is sleeping, where are Ruby and Blake? Rubes should have been back by now. And where would Blake vanish off to? Well seems like a Yang's work is never done.'_ Thought Yang growing somewhat worried about her missing partner and sister.

Yang dropped off her and Blake's things on the desk and walked out of the room making her way to the common room thinking where they could be this late at night. While walking to the common room she pulled out her scroll and sent quick messages to both Ruby and Blake asking them where they are. A few minutes later she walked into the common room looked around and only saw Dove working on some assignment, papers and books spread out on the table in front of him.

"Hey Dove" Yang said walking up to the table that Dove was sitting at, but not seeing him react she tried again.

"Hey Dove!" Yang said loudly shocking Dove out of his work.

"Yang" Dove replied looking up from his work and turned to look at Yang with a tired look on his face.

Yang walked around the table to stand in front of Dove and asked, "Have you seen Blake or Ruby around?"

"Nope haven't seen them since classes ended." Dove replied quickly hoping that Yang would leave so that he could get back to his assignment for Port.

"Okay thanks, have fun, try not to think too hard." Yang replied walking out of the common room giving Dove a wave goodbye.

Dove grumbled and went back to his work.

' _So, they aren't in the common room, though they could have been there and Dove wouldn't have even noticed them with how hard he was looking at his books. Ugh typical Team Cardinal, not helpful at all. Where else could they be.'_ Yang thought deciding to check the cafeteria ' _Just in case Ruby went for a late-night cookie run or Blake went for a tuna run'_. Yang checked her scroll and saw no replies. _'Those two better have a good reason for not being back, Blake especially since she left me to do the assignment on my own.'_ Yang huffed _'Better have been an important message.'_

As Yang made her way to the cafeteria she started walking faster and made it there in what she assumed was close to a record time. Looking around the cafeteria she saw a few dozen students spread around in small groups working on assignments or talking, but no Blake or Ruby. Spotting Coco talking to a small group of other second year team leaders she made her way over.

"Hey Coco" Yang greeted the second-year team leader while walking up to stand by the group's table.

"Hi Yang, what's up, kind of late to be walking around." Coco replied turning from her conversation to look at a slightly worried looking Yang. "Something going on?"

"Nothing much, just looking for Ruby and Blake, have you seen them? They aren't replying to my messages." Yang replied checking her scroll again.

"Oh, I haven't seen Blake, but Ruby and Jaune left like 15 minutes ago, once the team leader meeting was done. It went late tonight, supposedly Goodwitch is going to be upping the training for first and second years." Coco replied with the rest of the second years nodding along.

"That was tonight, totally forgot about the leader meeting, Rubes was talking about it all week." Yang said slapping her hand against her face for forgetting the team leader meeting that the first- and second-year leaders had with some fourth-year team leaders today. Yang asked, "Do you know where Ruby and Jaune went?"

"It looked like they turned towards the dorms when they walked out." Coco replied and continued good-naturedly "You know Ruby should really cut down on the cookies and start drinking coffee. It will help her out for the rest of these team leader meetings that Oobleck wants us to do."

"Well thanks for letting me know, I'll message Ruby again, if you happen to see Blake let her know to call me." Yang replied relieved that at least Ruby wasn't in any trouble. _'Now where else could Blakey have run off to. And Goodwitch is going to be upping our training? Why now? Does she really want Beacon to win the tournament that much?'_

"Sure thing. Something going on with Blake?" Coco asked, pulling Yang from her thought, the rest of the second years looking on.

"No, she just got a message and we haven't seen her since, could be some important news from home or something like that." Yang replied while thinking of where else to check or if she should just go back to the room to wait for Blake or just go to sleep and deal with whatever happened to Blake tomorrow.

Yang turned to look at Coco and said, "Thanks Coco, night." As she decided to check the library before making her way back to the room.

"Night Yang hope you find Blake" Coco replied and the second years went back to talking about some of their upcoming mission and if those missions would interfere with taking part in the festival.

Making her way out of the cafeteria Yang heard her scroll's notification sound and checked it, it was a message from Ruby saying that she and Jaune had to drop off some papers at Oobleck's office and that they were on their way back to the dorm. _'Well that's good, now just the library and back to the room. Hopefully Blake will reply to my message.'_ Yang pulled out her scroll and tried calling Blake but received only the busy signal. _'Wonder if Blake is talking to someone'_ Yang wondered.

As Yang wondered she made her way to the library and walked in, she took a few minutes to do a lap of the library looking down each aisle. After completing the lap and not seeing Blake anywhere she pulled out her scroll and sent a message to Ruby asking if she saw Blake anywhere. After sending the message Yang began to wonder if the message that Blake got might have been White Fang related. Her scroll interrupted her wondering.

**RING RING RING**

Yang pulled out her scroll and seeing a call from Ruby answered it.

"Hi Rubes"

"Hi Yang" Ruby said in she happy voice and continued "Sorry for not calling sooner the leader meeting went long once we started talked about the news that Ms. Goodwitch will be making our classes harder. Something going on with Blake? I thought you two were working on Oobleck's assignment together?"

"Yeah we started working on it, but Blake got some message on her scroll, said that she needed to take it and left. I haven't seen her since. I checked our room and her usual places but no Blake anywhere." Yang said walking out of the center building and walking towards the dorms.

"Oh, do you know that the message was?" Ruby asked

"No clue, something important, maybe family things or White Fang things. Maybe some book of hers came out and Blake had to go get it…..." Yang said and trailed off thinking of other possibilities. "Anyway, I'm on my way back to our room, will you be back soon?"

"Yeah me and Jaune are on our way back, had to drop off the leader question sheet, we'll look if we can find Blake anywhere on our way back." Ruby said sounding worried, Yang also heard a quiet "What happened to Blake?" from Jaune

"Okay, see you back in our room Rubes and let Vomit-boy know that if anything happens to you, I'll hold him responsible." Yang said jokingly.

"YYYaaannnngggg! Nothing is going to happen to me and don't scare Jaune." Ruby replied sounding exasperated. Yang also heard a "Wait, what will Yang do to me?" from Jaune.

"Bye Rubes" Yang said with a laugh.

When Yang heard Ruby reply with a "Bye Yang" she hung up the scroll and checked for any new messages, after sending a new message to Blake she put her scroll away and started to walk faster to her room.

As Yang walked, she wondered _'So family or White Fang or book thing? What else would cause Blakey to vanish like this, I don't think she has any friends from before Beacon that she would have rushed out to see or help without telling me. Hopefully it's not a White Fang thing, I don't want us to have to go through all that again. And I think that Goodwitch is still mad at Blake and Ruby for the fight at the docks.'_ As Yang though she increased her walking speed again.

' _Well back to the room, then I'll have to decided what to do, maybe Blake is on her way back now and is in some random corridor. In any case I'll track her down.'_ Yang resolved, looking down the other random corridors for any signs of Blake.

As she walked into the dorm building Yang was power walking down one of corridors looking around for any signs of Blake, after not finding her in their room, the library, the common room, or the cafeteria Yang was running out of places she could be hiding in Beacon. _'Maybe up a tree somewhere?'_

' _I wonder were Blakey could have ninjaed off to without letting me or anyone else on the team know. Somewhere in Vale?'_ Yang was still wondering what the message Blake got could be and what her sometimes impulsive partner could be doing. _'And everyone calls me the impulsive one.'_

Well there were a couple times that she acted without thinking that came to mind, but she was getting better and she raised Ruby. So Yang did not buy into the common opinion that she was the impulsive one on the team, maybe hotheaded but not impulsive.

As she turned a corner, she heard the distinctive laughter of her sister. _'Maybe Ruby found Blake on her way here or maybe Blake messaged her.'_

Walking around another corner she saw Ruby laughing with Jaune, holding her scroll in front of him. _'Wonder what Rubes is showing him that's so funny.'_ Yang took a second to look at Ruby and Jaune laughing together, Ruby pointing something out on her scroll.

' _Say what you want about Jaune, he is good for Ruby, treats her no different than anyone else, lets her dork out with him.'_ At the beginning Yang wasn't sure about Jaune, her sister bonding so quickly with a guy threw her for a loop. She was also worried about what some 17-year-old guy want with her sister, but that was before she got to know Jaune and now she was more worried about Ruby pulling him into something than the other way around.

"Hi Rubes, Hi Vomit Boy" Yang called out as she walked up to both of them.

"Hi Yang" Ruby replied quickly with a smile on her face.

"Ugh, hey Yang, do you have to call me that?" said Jaune looking up with a sigh when she called him their nickname for him.

"Yes, I have to" retorted Yang with a laugh to Jaune's sigh.

"So, what's up Yang?" asked Ruby jumping in front of Yang. "Blake reply to you?"

"No nothing from Blake, you guys see anything? Or did Blake message you Rubes?" Yang replied and asked.

"No" both Ruby and Jaune replied with a shake of their heads.

Yang sighed and said "Well, no point in wandering around Beacon looking for her, lets get back to the room."

As all three of them started to walk to the rooms Yang and Jaune flanking Ruby, Yang asked "So what were you showing Jaune that was so funny?"

"Oh, a fourth year sent a video of a pretty funny thing that happened on one of their last missions, want to see?" Ruby replied, restarting whatever video she was showing Jaune and giving her scroll to Yang.

While they walked Yang watched the video and it was pretty funny like Ruby said, giving Ruby back her scroll while laughing, "That was good, don't know if I could have held back my laughter while watching a Beowolf trip down the stairs and bring down all the rest of the pack into a big dog pile. Or should I say Beowolf pile."

"Yeah that would have been funny to see." Ruby replied while Jaune nodded laughing a bit.

"So, no Blake anywhere?" Ruby asked after Yang stopped chuckling.

"No, looked around and haven't found her. Worst is that she isn't replying to my messages and that any time I tried to call her I get a busy signal, or my call goes straight to her voicemail." Yang replied while shaking her head.

"You really think that the message could be something to do with the White Fang?" Ruby asked.

"No clue, maybe, maybe not, we will have to strap Blake to a chair and ask. You know how hard it was to get Blake to say what is bothering her last time." Yang said ending with a huff.

Ruby shook her head and said, "Yeah I don't want Blake to go back to old Blake." With a worried look on her face.

"Well if it is the White Fang then Team Juniper is always ready to help out" Jaune said while Yang and Ruby went quiet thinking.

"Thanks Jaune, we'll let you know if we need help." Ruby said with a smile on her face.

Yang nodded and said, "Could have used the help during the whole White Fang train thing, the breach could have gone differently." Thinking how much help Pyrrha, Nora, Ren and Jaune could have been taking pressure off them during all the train fights.

"Well just let me know and we will be there" Jaune replied looking at Yang and Ruby with a smile.

Yang and Ruby both nodded at him again Ruby saying "Of course" while giving Jaune a quick side hug. Jaune laughed and ruffled Ruby's hair.

Ruby started to move her head around batting Jaune's hand with her own, trying to get her hair away from Jaune's hand, "Jaaauuune, not in front of Yang."

After giving Ruby's hair once last ruffle Jaune said "Fine, fine" and stopped.

' _Dorks, the both of them, who would have thought that the leaders of the two best teams at Beacon were dorks.'_ Yang thought with a chuckle watching them play around.

As they walked back Yang looked at Ruby and Jaune while they talked about places that Blake could be in Vale, mainly some bookstores and cafes. _'Looks like tomorrow will be a busy day'_ Yang thought with a sigh _'Looks like I won't be getting enough sleep tonight, waking up bright and early to look for Blake if Ruby has her way. Rubes really has too much energy. Must be all the cookies she eats.'_

Now Ruby didn't eat that many cookies, it was more that she just didn't stop eating them if there were cookies in front of her. But after everything that happened to both of them while growing up and the fact that for a decent part of Ruby's life she was the one raising Ruby, Yang thought that a slight cookie addiction was a good outcome if that was the worst result. Well that and the social awkwardness and the weapon obsession, but still those weren't the worst things and Yang maintained that Ruby came out very well.

' _Look at Rubes now, team leader, taking charge of missions, talking to a guy 2 years older than her with no issues. Sure the guy is Jaune, but still good to see Ruby growing so much.'_ Before they came to Beacon Yang couldn't see Ruby being so outgoing or so sure of herself in social situations. Ruby had her and a small group of friends but didn't look like she wanted to make more friends or get to know more people. In the end Ruby coming to Beacon 2 years early with her worked out well.

Yang looked over to Jaune suggesting that when or if they go looking for Blake they all will have to link scrolls through some app that a fourth year showed him that tracks the position of everyone and that you can use to plan out search patterns with. _'Who knew that Vomit Boy could be a such a good leader as well?'_

After her short panic thinking what a guy would want with her sister Yang came to like Jaune. He was a good guy, pretty dependable, fun to mess around with and he treated Ruby very well. Sure the beginning of her team's friendship with Jaune was a bit rough but after the first semester, once his issues with Cardin and Weiss were resolved and once his training with Pyrrha started to show results Jaune lost some of his whole panicky false confidence and become more self assured. Still his dorky goofy self, but more real. Which was the best outcome that Yang thought could have happened and made being friends with him even better. _'Plus unlike most guys he doesn't stare at my boobs when talking to me and he is always up for messing with Ruby.'_

Yang shook her head at the two leaders now coming up with code words for situations.

"Would using Cat as Blake's codename be offensive or just too easy?" Jaune asked with a thoughtful look on his face after saying that if Vomit Boy was his codename then Crater Face would have to be Ruby's.

Ruby still shaking her head no to her codename asked "Well what else could her codename be? Book? Oooh maybe Gambol Shroud, we can use our weapons as our codenames."

"Maybe, though everyone knows our weapon names so they would not be good codenames." Jaune replied and continued after a pause "We can figure it out tomorrow."

"Sure, Yang what do you think of codenames?" Ruby asked turning to look at Yang.

"So long as you make mine good." Yang replied rubbing Ruby on her head, ruffling her hair like Jaune a minute ago.

"Yaaannng, not in front of Jaune." Ruby complained while using her semblance to zip to the other side of Jaune, putting him between her and Yang. Jaune chuckled at their interaction.

"Had to do that Rubes, mission plans, codenames, my little sister is growing up so well." Yang said with a large smile on her face trying to reach around Jaune to get at Ruby. Ruby keeping her at bay by using her semblance.

While Yang and Ruby were playing around, Jaune was looking at his scroll and found something interesting "Hey Yang, did you see the news from Atlas and the SDC?"

"No, haven't checked, I'm not Weiss who has to look at SDC news everyday." Yang replied to Jaune.

Jaune gave Yang his scroll "You should read this."

Yang read through the article while mumbling "Huh, what's this, White Fang attack on SDC refinement facility, the facility suffered a meltdown, some suspect the White Fang, the SDC settlement was lost, SDC forces captured or killed the White Fang attack team that entered the destroyed settlement after the fires ended, there are rumors that Adam Taurus was killed in the SDC action, the White Fang High Leader Sienna Khan will be releasing a statement, the SDC will be releasing a statement." Yang finished reading through the article and looked up to look at Jaune and Ruby.

"If Blake saw this, she would have lost her shit" "Swear word" Ruby said interrupting Yang "Sorry Rubes, but this could be the reason Blake vanished off somewhere." Yang paused to groan "Just our luck, it had to be something to do with the White Fang. I'll send Blake a message, lets get back to the rooms."

"So, it is something White Fang, but why would Blake run somewhere without telling you or sending the team a message? Ruby asked looking at Yang's suddenly tired expression.

"Don't know Rubes, but we will find out." Yang replied looking down at her sister.

As they reached their rooms Jaune turned to both sisters and said, "Just let me know how we can help tomorrow, okay." Ruby replied with a "Sure" and Yang "We will".

A few steps later they reached the doors of their rooms.

"Well this is our stop, we'll let you know the plan for tomorrow in the morning. Night Jaune." Yang said to Jaune while Ruby also said "Night" and to save that video from the fourth year. Jaune replied with his own "Night Ruby, Night Yang" and they walked into their rooms.

Once in her room Yang took a quick look at Blake's bed and saw that she wasn't there. "No Blake, she had to have gone to Vale, right?" Yang asked Ruby.

Ruby took a look around the room and replied to her sister "If she isn't anywhere here at Beacon then she would have to be somewhere in Vale. Where else would she have gone if she wasn't somewhere here?"

"Don't know, I'll leave my scroll's sound on so if Blake calls, we will hear it. Hopefully by tomorrow she will send some message, or we will just have to go to Vale and track her down." Yang said starting to get ready for bed.

"Hopefully" Ruby said and once she was done getting ready for bed she turned to Yang and said "Goodnight Yang"

Yang replied with a "Night Rubes" and they both went to sleep.

* * *

A happy though slightly worried Jaune walked through the door into his room still shaking his head at Ruby's and Yang's interactions, even if they didn't look like sisters, you couldn't spend a few minutes around them without knowing for sure that they were sisters. He was also worried about what could have happened to Blake and if the news from the SDC was the cause of her vanishing.

A quiet "Jaune?" caught his attention and he looked over to Pyrrha's bed to see her awake in her sleep clothes sitting up. _'What's Pyrrha doing awake, I thought she would have been asleep hours ago?'_

"Pyrrha? Did I wake you up?" Jaune asked quietly looking at Nora and Ren sleeping in their beds.

Pyrrha stood up, put on one of his hoodies that was laying on his chair, walked over to him and then motioned for him to follow her. They both walked out of the room and down the corridor a bit to get away from both of the team's rooms. Once they turned a corner Pyrrha came to a stop and looked at Jaune "No I was awake waiting for you, I thought that the team leader meeting would have ended sooner."

Jaune stopped beside Pyrrha and looked at the worried expression on her face, "Sorry for not sending a message, I thought you might have been asleep, and I didn't want to wake you. The meeting went long once we started talking about some rumor that the fourth years heard that Goodwitch will be making the first- and second-year training harder." Pyrrha replied with a "Oh" and Jaune continued "Yeah, then me and Ruby had to go to Oobleck's office to drop off the leader question sheet and on our way back we met up with Yang and talked about Blake."

Pyrrha nodded at his explanation and asked, "What's going on with Blake?"

They both moved a bit closed together so that they could continue talking quietly and Jaune answered "Yang says that Blake got some message on her scroll while they were working on an assignment. Whatever the message was it caused Blake to leave and Yang hasn't seen her since. Yang spent some time walking around the school looking for her, but didn't find Blake anywhere and Blake is not answering Yang's or Ruby's calls or messages. On our way back I found some news from the SDC that there was a White Fang attack against one of their facilities and that they captured or killed all the White Fang involved in the attack."

"Ohh, that's not good. How are we going to help Blake and team Rwby?" Pyrrha asked with a slightly different worried look on her face. Jaune couldn't make out why the two looks were different, just that they were. _'Pyrrha is such a good person, tired from staying awake waiting for me, but still worried about Blake and wanting to help.'_

Jaune answered slightly distracted by Pyrrha wearing one of his hoodies. "Ruby or Yang will be messaging me…." Jaune trailed off and looked at the time on his scroll "in a few hours with plans. I promised that we would help them look if they think Blake might be in Vale."

' _Why did Pyrrha put on my hoodie instead of her sweater? And why does she look better in my hoodie than I do?'_ Jaune's thoughts were interrupted by Pyrrha.

Pyrrha nodded and said "Okay, hopefully Blake just needs some time by herself to process the news and nothing serious is happening. Though if we will be helping team Rwby then we will need to get some sleep."

While they both started to walk back to the room Jaune turned to Pyrrha and apologised again "Sorry that I kept you awake Pyr."

Pyrrha moved closer to Jaune and leaned against his arm with a yawn putting her head on his shoulder. She looked at him and answered "It's fine, just send a message next time so I'm not left worrying"

"Sure Pyr" Jaune replied while they walked into their room, both blushing slightly, Pyrrha yawning again.

While Pyrrha went back to her bed, took off his hoodie and laid down to sleep Jaune got ready for bed and once he came back from brushing his teeth, he turned to Pyrrha and said "Goodnight Pyr."

Laying down in her bed she turned to look at him and replied with a tired smile "Goodnight Jaune."

Jaune smiled back a Pyrrha _'So Vale tomorrow, hopefully Pyrrha is right that Blake just needed time to process the news alone. In any case its going to be an early morning if Ruby wants to head out for Vale first time after breakfast.'_

Jaune looked over to Pyrrha snuggling down into her pillow even more and smiled wider _'Who would have thought that the famous Pyrrha Nikos would like snuggling her pillow so much when she sleeps. I need to buy her a teddy bear and see if she snuggles that also. The pictures could make for something good to send to Pyrrha's mom and for Nora, Ruby and Yang to coo over, though it would probably break whatever image of Pyrrha Weiss has.'_ Jaune gave a quiet chuckle at those thoughts.

After looking at an adorable Pyrrha for a few more seconds his thoughts went back to Blake _'Though Blake could be somewhere here at Beacon, just hiding somewhere. There are enough empty classrooms and dorms for her to use and Yang couldn't have checked all of them in her walk around the school. Though if Blake did know this Adam guy or maybe she knew someone taking part in the attack, and she lost a friend? That would be hard to deal with._ ' Jaune wondered. _'In any case will have to find Blake to find out why she vanished.'_

Jaune turned to lay on his back thinking about Blake and the rest of team Rwby and how this would be the third time that the White Fang caused issues for them.

He knew that he wasn't the closest person to Blake, at the beginning of the year they were closer to being friends of friends, but during the year and especially after Blake and Ruby let his team know that Blake is a faunus and was part of the White Fang, they got a lot closer. Jaune considered Blake one of his best friends, a category that he applied to everyone from both teams.

Jaune knew that Blake had some issues with the White Fang, you couldn't talk with Yang about some subjects without that coming up. But he hoped that Yang would have gotten through to Blake not to do a vanishing act like earlier in the year. Based on what Ruby told him Yang and Blake had a serious talk right before the dance so Ruby was hopeful. _'Looks like that talk didn't fix all of the Blake – White Fang – Team RWBY issues. Should I really get Team Juniper involved in their issues?_ Jaune wondered.

Now Jaune liked team Rwby, Ruby was his first friend at Beacon, she got him like no one else at Beacon and she is his second closest friend, right after Pyrrha. Yang was a blast to hang around with, the two over them could talk for hours about little sister stories and she was very insightful and serious if the situation called for it. Blake didn't make fun of his habit of reading comics, she has a surprisingly witty sense of humor and was the best person to read and relax with. Even Weiss after the dance and his apology considered him a friend and they would actually talk about assignments or news from Atlas or Argus. So outside of his team they were the people he was the closest with and four out of the 7 best friends he ever had, but they did have their issues.

Unfortunately, the White Fang played to their issues, Blake's and Wiess's past with the Fang and all that complicated mess, Ruby's saving people thing and Yang's whole overprotective big sister/mother instinct and temper. The whole team was also surprisingly impulsive and didn't really think through situations. Though Jaune knew he had no leg to stand on either on the impulsive or bad planning front as faking his way into Beacon with no aura or training was probably worse than anything Yang, Blake, Ruby or Weiss did.

As Jaune began to fall asleep he decided he would have to play the whole thing by ear and hopefully not add any problems.

* * *

Blake was sitting in some long-abandoned storage room on the top floor of the central building looking out the window. Blake didn't know what to feel since she saw the updates from one of the White Fang forums that she was still a member of _'The White Fang attacked the destroyed SDC settlement and ran into the SDC recovery team which then caught or killed most of them. And it was led by Adam. Why would he do that? How could he be killed by the SDC? Why would Mom and Dad work with Sienna to release a statement? What will the Vale Fang do?'_

It was too much news at once to process, Adam being declared dead was a point of argument on the forum and Blake wasn't 100% convinced that he was killed. That he led a doomed attack though was weighing on her mind and making her angrier than she remembered being in a long time _'How could he take so many brothers and sisters and lead them to their deaths or capture! Did he not plan it?! How could he do something that let the SDC says that the Fang killed all the faunus in the settlement by causing the meltdown!'_

Blake jumped up from her seat and started pacing in front of the window her mind jumping from thought to thought trying to come to some sort of conclusions on the next actions by the White Fang and SDC _'What would the Fang do if Adam is captured? How would the SDC have captured him? He would have been hurt badly…. Or what if the SDC actually killed him? Who would replace him? Is that why Sienna is working with mom and dad? What will the SDC say?'_

Blake was pacing, her mind still jumping around when she ran her hands through her hair, catching the ribbon over her ears. She paused her pacing and gripped the ribbon with both hands, she slowly took it off and brought it in front of her. While looking at it her thoughts ran even more _'If Adam is dead… Why would the SDC kill him? He was worth more alive. What will the Fang in Vale do? What will Sienna do?'_ Still staring at the ribbon, eyes watering a bit at the thought of Adam and the rest dead, other thoughts came to her mind _'How will Beacon react to the news? What will mom and dad want to do? What would they or Sienna want me to do?'_

' _How will faunus be treated now?'_

' _What if the Fang actually did cause the meltdown?'_

Blake stood completely still starting at her ribbon, the next few days would change everything for the White Fang and maybe even change how faunus in Vale were treated. How Menagerie was treated by the rest of the Kingdoms.

Blake hoped that she could have stopped wearing her ribbon soon, after the mess with her team that came from Weiss finding out about her faunus heritage and past involvement in the White Fang passed, the girls accepted her. Soon after Ruby convinced her to tell Team Juniper the news and all 4 of them accepted her as well with no issues. Blake was hopeful that maybe at the start of 2nd year she could stop wearing her ribbon and it wouldn't be an issue that she was a faunus to most people at Beacon.

Now though, depending on what came from this attack everything could change _'More White Fang attacks. Harsher SDC treatment. Atlas cracking down even more. What would Vale and Beacon do?'_

' _What will I do? What could I do?'_

Blake knew that her team wouldn't be happy with her if she started doing more White Fang related things. She also knew that Yang will be very angry at her for just leaving her once she saw that update and not replying to any of her messages or calls. She just needed to go somewhere to think through everything.

In the end, even after hours of reading, calling some of the people she knew in the Fang that would still talk to her and spending over an hour thinking about calling her parents. Blake was just stuck. By the end of the weekend her entire world outside of Beacon could be changed.

And Blake knew that she would have to face the music tomorrow no matter what she planned to do.

* * *

**Chapter End**

* * *

**And we come to the end of the third chapter, bit of an introduction to the situation that they will be dealing with for the next chapter. Bit of a shorter chapter, we rewrote the chapter 3 times before we settled on this and we still aren't 100% happy with Blake's part, but it works.**

**Hope everyone likes our take on Yang, Jaune, Blake and the basic group dynamics and background. We are coming from the thinking that what we see in the show over the first 3 volumes are just a few days, maybe just over a week out of the months of a school year. So all of them would be doing school work, hanging out, talking, being students and friends outside of what we see in the show.**

**Next chapter will be Blake deciding what to do, Yang hunting her partner down and the rest being dragging into adventure. We will have some White Fang action and Roman will make his grand reappearance with Neo. Sienna, Kali and Ghira will also be having their talk. Plus a look at a reoccurring bad guy, one of the few named bad guys left after we killed off most of them, they will be a bit of a comic relief character, but just capable enough to cause issues. We don't think there has been any story that featured this guy.**

**We hope everyone joins us in chapter 4.**


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